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3×3 Eyes follows the adventures of Pai, the last remaining , and her new Wu (Chinese reading of 无; an immortal companion), Yakumo, as they desperately try to find a way to make Pai human so that she can forget her troubled past. Pai travelled to Tokyo searching for the artifact, but shortly after she arrived, a thief snatched her backpack and cane from her. A teenage lad, Yakumo, tackled the crook and managed to get the pack back for her, though the thief escaped with the cane. Yakumo took her to his work, where Pai was able to get cleaned up, and where she discovered that he was the son of Professor Fujii, an archaeologist she had met in Tibet four years prior. The Professor had been researching the legends of the Sanjiyans and had befriended her and offered to help her find the Ningen, only to fall ill and die. Pai had his last letter to his son in her backpack, which asked Yakumo to help Pai with her quest. Although he didn't believe his father's tales of Pai being a monster, he agreed to assist her. Their discussion was interrupted by news reports of a giant monster flying over the city. Pai recognised the creature as her pet Takuhi, who must have been released from his home in Pai's cane by the thief, and who was now looking for her. Pai set out to retrieve him, with Yakumo close behind. However when Yakumo saw Takuhi fly towards Pai, the lad mistook the beast's welcome for an attack, and shoved Pai out the way; immediately Takuhi ripped into the lad, fatally wounding him. Unwilling to lose the boy she had been hunting for and just located, Pai's third eye opened, and she absorbed his soul. This restored his body, but tied him to her as her undead servant. Linked to her, he can only become human again when she becomes human. In the way of this goal are hordes of monsters and demons from the Shadow World, some desiring Pai's powers, others who seek the Ningen for their own. Yakumo can again become mortal and end his constant need to protect Pai because if Pai dies, then so will he. Along the way, they encounter many followers of the now-dead demon god Kaiyanwang, all of whom wish to kill Pai or siphon off her power in order to resurrect their deity and/or gain immortality. 

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Recent divorcée Gloria Mundy (Goldie Hawn) is a shy librarian who lives in San Francisco. While attending a party, she is encouraged by a friend to leave herself open to new experiences. On the way home, Gloria picks up an attractive man named Bob "Scotty" Scott (Bruce Solomon) when she encounters him in his broken down car. She impulsively accepts Scotty's invitation to join him at the movies that evening, and before they part ways, he asks her to take his pack of cigarettes in order to help him curb his smoking. Unbeknownst to her, Scotty has secreted a roll of film in the pack. That evening, a seriously wounded Scotty meets Gloria in the theater and warns her to "beware of the dwarf" before dying. When his body mysteriously disappears while Gloria seeks help from the theater manager, she is unable to convince anyone of what has transpired. At the end of the following work day, Gloria is attacked in the library by albino Whitey Jackson (William Frankfather). She manages to escape and seeks refuge with Stanley Tibbets (Dudley Moore), an aspiring British womanizer who assumes she is picking him up to have sex. Shocked by his misunderstanding, she flees and returns to her apartment, where she is attacked by a man with a scar who demands the cigarette pack Scotty had given her. When he attempts to strangle her with a scarf, Gloria stabs him in the stomach with a pair of knitting needles and calls the police for help. When her attacker tries to stop her, he is killed by Whitey through the kitchen window, and Gloria faints. When she awakens, all traces of what has happened have disappeared, and she is unable to convince two San Francisco policemen, Lt. Tony Carlson (Chevy Chase) and his partner Inspector "Fergie" Ferguson (Brian Dennehy), or even her landlord Mr. Hennessy (Burgess Meredith), that she was attacked. Gloria is abducted by Turk Farnum (Ion Tedorescu), the chauffeur of a limousine in which she earlier had seen Whitey riding, but she manages to subdue him with spray mace and brass knuckles given to her by her friend and fellow library employee, Stella (Marilyn Sokol). Later, Tony takes her to his houseboat, where the two become involved romantically. Upon further investigation, Tony discovers that a contract killer named Rupert Stiltskin (alias "the Dwarf") was under investigation by an undercover detective named Bob "Scotty" Scott, who had received a tip that a major assassination would take place in the city on a certain night. Tony is now assigned to protect Gloria from her would-be killers. Tony and Gloria are attracted to each other and they have sex at Tony's houseboat. When Tony and Fergie discover that the limousine is registered to the archdiocese of San Francisco, they visit the office of Archbishop Thorncrest (Eugene Roche), unaware that the man they're interviewing is actually the archbishop's twin brother Charlie, who is involved in a plot to assassinate Pope Pius XIII (played by prominent San Francisco businessman Cyril Magnin) during his upcoming visit to San Francisco. Charlie has murdered his twin in order to impersonate him. The following day, Rupert kidnaps Fergie and uses him to lure Gloria into a trap. She manages to hide in a massage parlor, where she encounters Stanley yet again, but then is found and abducted by Jackson and Stiltskin. At Gloria's request, Stella has researched an organization known as the Tax the Churches League, and discovered that the league is a radical fringe group, founded by one Delia Darrow and her husband. For the Darrows, organized religion is a corrupt, greedy sham involving powerful billion-dollar corporations. Stella gives the results of her findings to Tony, who returns to the archbishop's residence with Mr. Hennessy. Sneaking into the wine cellar, Tony discovers the imprisoned Fergie, who informs him that Stiltskin was hired by the Darrows to assassinate the pope during a performance of The Mikado at the San Francisco Opera House that evening. Tony is attacked by Rupert and kills him in self- defense by toppling shelves of wine upon him, but then is held at gunpoint along with Gloria by the fake archbishop's assistant Gerda Caswell (Rachel Roberts), who is really Delia Darrow. Darrow then details her "contingency plan" to eliminate the pope: If the pope is not yet terminated at the end of act I, Whitey Jackson will open fire from one of the auditorium's two organ bays ("He will also open fire should the pope unexpectedly leave his seat, or if the police arrive in the auditorium", Darrow explains). Mr. Hennessy knocks out Charlie and defeats Delia in a duel of martial arts, then Tony and Gloria drive to the opera house, having some unusual problems along the way (such as crashing into an Italian restaurant and commandeering an airport limousine carrying a pair of Japanese tourists). After making it backstage, Gloria is grabbed by Jackson, who kills one of several security guards who have joined the pursuit. An enraged Gloria attempts to attack Jackson, who simply shoves her to the floor. This gives Tony the room he needs to shoot the albino, thus thwarting the plan to kill the pope. As the performance ends, Gloria and Tony are revealed onstage along with the now-dead bodies of Jackson and the guard, but the pope, who seems not to have noticed anything unusual, leads the audience in applause for the cast, the orchestra, and the conductor – Stanley Tibbets. 

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Each of the books follows the struggles and writing career of Roth's novelist alter ego Nathan Zuckerman. 

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Celebrated singer and actress Edda Vivian (Haid), who has secretly married her lover, Prince Alba (Iván Petrovich), has arrived in Vienna as part of a promotional tour. Her manager, Toni Miller (Lingen), who is completely unaware of her married state and the husband she is hiding in her hotel suite, has arranged a publicity stunt—an auction to be held at a ball where Edda Vivian is supposed to give a kiss to the highest bidder, with the money to be given to charity. At the same time Franz Angerer (Rühmann), a student of philology, arrives in Vienna, where he wants to attend a conference. He is put up by his Uncle Ferdinand (Karl Hellmer), who works as a butler for Direktor Wiesinger (Moser in rather an unusual role), the owner of a record company. In the course of the action Angerer is mistaken for several other people, in particular Prince Alba. However, he only has eyes for Wiesinger's daughter, Dore (Susi Lanner). The happy ending consists in the real Prince Alba showing himself to the public together with his wife Edda Vivian, and in Franz Angerer, who by his wit has made her sign an exclusive contract with Wiesinger's company, becoming engaged to Dore. 

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Focusing on the growing problem of children living in hardship - especially as a result of AIDS - the film follows the abrupt journey of two children into a world of adult responsibility. Itayi and Tamari are devastated following the death of both parents, shunned by family and friends, and left with nothing. Frustrated and in despair, Itayi tries his luck in the big city, leaving Tamari at home to look after herself and her younger brothers and sisters. 

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In the original editions, the first books in the series (like those in previous Stratemeyer series) took place in a clear chronology, with the characters aging as time passed. The Bobbsey Twins: Merry Days Indoors and Out took place over the course of a school year, with Nan and Bert described as eight years old and Freddie and Flossie four. The second book, The Bobbsey Twins in the Country is set at the beginning of the following summer. The second part of the summer is chronicled in The Bobbsey Twins at the Seashore, which is written as a direct sequel to the previous book, tying up some plot threads. The fourth book, The Bobbsey Twins at School, begins the next autumn, with Nan and Bert "nearly nine years old" and Freddie and Flossie "almost five." Editors at the Stratemeyer Syndicate quickly realized, at this rate, their young heroes would quickly age beyond their readership, so the later books in the series (and revised editions) take place in a sort of chronological stasis, with the older twins perpetually 12 years old and the younger set 6. The earliest Bobbsey books were mainly episodic strings of adventures; with the growing popularity of the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew, detective plots began to dominate the series. Few of the mysteries involved violent crime, and quite a few did not involve any crime. While many of the early volumes were constructed from whole cloth, with little or no connection to the real world, by 1917 (The Bobbsey Twins in a Great City, vol. 9, rewritten in 1960 as The Bobbsey Twins' Search in the Great City) they visit real places, and by the 1950s (The Bobbsey Twins at Pilgrim Rock vol. 50), those visits to real places were as well-researched as any fictional visits to real places. By 1971, when the Bobbseys visited Colonial Williamsburg (The Bobbsey Twins' Red White and Blue Mystery, vol. 64), real places were depicted in meticulous detail, down to the names of well-known hotels and restaurants (and, in that particular case, the color of Colonial Williamsburg shuttle buses). It is said vol. 68, The Bobbsey Twins on the Sun-Moon Cruise, was the result of a research trip for a proposed Nancy Drew book: Harriet Stratemeyer Adams and Nancy Axelrad (her personal assistant at the time) took an eclipse cruise but, when they returned, the publisher was more interested in a new Bobbsey title. 

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Oroonoko: or, the Royal Slave is a relatively short novel set in a narrative frame. The narrator opens with an account of the colony of Surinam and its native people. Within this is a historical tale concerning the Coramantien grandson of an African king, Prince Oroonoko. At a very young age Prince Oroonoko was trained for battle and became an expert Captain by 17. During a battle the top General sacrifices himself for the Prince by taking an arrow for him. In sight of this event, the Prince takes the place of General. Oroonoko decides to honorably visit the daughter of the deceased general to offer the "Trophies of her Father's Victories", but he immediately falls in love with Imoinda and later asks for her hand in marriage. Portrait of Aphra Behn, aged approximately 30, by Mary Beale The king hears Imoinda described as the most beautiful and charming in the land, and he also falls in love. Despite his Intelligence saying she had been claimed by Oroonoko, the king gives Imoinda a sacred veil, thus forcing her to become one of his wives, even though she is already promised to Oroonoko. Imoinda unwillingly, but dutifully, enters the king's harem (the Otan), and Oroonoko is comforted by his assumption that the king is too old to ravish her. Over time the Prince plans a tryst with the help of the sympathetic Onahal (one of the kings wives) and Aboan (a friend to the prince). The Prince and Imoinda are reunited for a short time and consummate their marriage, but are eventually discovered. Imoinda and Onahal are punished for their actions by being sold as slaves. The king's guilt, however, leads him to lie to Oroonoko that Imoinda has instead been executed, since death was thought to be better than slavery. The Prince grieves. Later, after winning another tribal war, Oroonoko and his men go to visit an English captain on his ship and are tricked and shackled after drinking. The English Captain plans to sell the Prince and his men as slaves and carries them to Surinam, at that time an English colony, in the West Indies. Oroonoko is purchased by a Cornish man named Trefry, but given special treatment due to his education and ability to speak French and English (which he learned from his own French slave). Trefry mentions that he came to own a most beautiful enslaved woman and had to stop himself from forcing her into sex. Unbeknownst to Oroonoko, Trefry is speaking of Imoinda who is at the same plantation. The two lovers are reunited under the slave names of Caesar and Clemene. The narrator and Trefry continue to treat the hero as an honored guest. The narrator recounts various entertaining episodes, including reading, hunting, visiting native villages, and capturing an electric eel. Oroonoko and Imoinda live as husband and wife in their own slave cottage, and when she becomes pregnant, Oroonoko petitions for their return to the homeland. After being put off with vague promises of the governor's arrival, Oroonoko organizes a slave revolt. The slaves, including Imoinda, fight valiantly, but the majority surrender when deputy governor Byam promises them amnesty. After the surrender, Oroonoko and Tuscan, his second-in-command, are punished and whipped by their former allies at the command of Byam. To avenge his honor, Oroonoko vows to kill Byam. He worries, however, that to do so would make Imoinda vulnerable to reprisal after his death. The couple decides that he should kill her, and so Imoinda dies by his hand. Oroonoko hides in the woods to mourn her and grows weaker, becoming unable to complete his revenge. When he is discovered, he decides to show his fearlessness in the face of death. He cuts off a piece of his own throat, disembowels himself, and stabs the first man who tries to approach him. Once captured, he is bound to a post. Resigned to his death, Oroonoko asks for a pipe to smoke as Banister has him quartered and dismembered. The novel is written in a mixture of first and third person, as the narrator relates events in Africa secondhand, and herself witnesses, and participates in, the actions that take place in Surinam. The narrator is a lady who has come to Surinam with her unnamed father, a man intended to be the new lieutenant-general of the colony. He, however, dies on the voyage from England. The narrator and her family are put up in the finest house in the settlement, in accord with their station, and the narrator's experiences of meeting the indigenous peoples and slaves are intermixed with the main plot of Oroonoko and Imoinda. At the conclusion of the narrative, the narrator leaves Surinam for London. Structurally, there are three significant pieces to the narrative, which does not flow in a strictly biographical manner. The novel opens with a statement of veracity, wherein the narrator claims to be writing neither fiction nor pedantic history. She claims to be an eyewitness and to be writing without any embellishment or agenda, relying solely upon real events. A description of Surinam and the South American Indians follows. The narrator regards the indigenous peoples as innocent and living in a golden age. Next, she provides the history of Oroonoko in Africa: the betrayal by his grandfather, the captivity of Imoinda, and his capture by the slaver captain. The narrative then returns to Surinam and the present: Oroonoko and Imoinda are reunited, and Oroonoko and Imoinda meet the narrator and Trefry. The final section describes Oroonoko's rebellion and its aftermath. 

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Kenneth McLaughlin is a 10-year-old boy living on Goose Bar Ranch, just out of Cheyenne, Wyoming, with his practical father, Rob; his mother, Nell; and his older brother, Howard. Rob is often unsatisfied with Ken, who daydreams when he should be attending to practical matters; Nell, however, shares her son's sensitive nature and is more sympathetic. Howard, the older son, who looks and acts more like Rob, was allowed to choose and train a colt from among the Goose Bar herd (thoroughbreds that Rob McLaughlin is raising in the old-fashioned way, on the open range), much to the jealousy of Ken. Although Ken loves horses, Rob doesn't think his wool-gathering son deserves such a privilege yet. The room on the Remount Ranch outside Cheyenne, Wyoming where Mary O'Hara wrote My Friend Flicka. It was added to the main house by O'Hara and her husband around 1931."Remount Ranch, Information & Specifications." (April 13, 1992). This publication was produced as part of a marketing package to sell the 1,766-acre ranch. At the beginning of the novel, Ken has angered his father by returning home from boarding school with failing grades and will have to repeat fifth grade, an expense Rob can ill afford. After a few mishaps in his first few days home, Nell convinces Rob to give Ken a colt, saying it will give him something to work towards and improve himself and his sense of responsibility. Ken is unable to decide which yearling he wants until he sees a beautiful sorrel filly running swiftly away from him. Rob, once again, is annoyed with his son; this particular filly has a strain of mustang blood that makes her very wild - "loco", in ranch idiom. The mustang blood comes from a wild horse called the Albino, named for his pure white coat. All the Goose Bar horses with this strain have been fast and beautiful, but untameable, and after many years of trying to break just one of them, Rob has decided to get rid of them all. Ken persists, however, and Rob reluctantly agrees to let him have the filly. Rob, Ken, and the ranch hands make two attempts to capture her. During the second attempt, she tries to escape by attempting to jump an impossibly high barbed wire fence and injures herself severely. Ken spends the rest of the summer nursing the filly. He names her Flicka - Swedish for "little girl" - and spends hours every day tending to her needs and keeping her company. Flicka comes to love and trust the boy, but her wounds fester and cause a dangerous blood infection, still young Ken perseveres in his care of her. During this time, he writes his overdue essay well enough to convince his fifth-grade English teacher to promote him to the next grade. Unfortunately Flicka grows so thin and weak that Rob decides she must be shot to put her out of her misery. The night before the order is to be carried out, Flicka wades into a shallow brook, falls, and is unable to rise. Ken sneaks from the house and spends the night sitting on the bank of the stream, with his legs in the cold water, holding her head to prevent her from drowning. When he is found the next morning, he has developed chills then a high fever but Flicka was alive. As the days pass, Ken's fever turns to pneumonia, and his condition continues downhill. On the other hand, Flicka gains strength steadily. By the end of the book, Ken has not only regained sufficient health to return to school he learns that his beloved horse is alive. 

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The premise of this novel is the banishment to the seemingly metal-poor planet Treason of a group of people who attempted to create rule by an intellectual elite. The novel centers on the descendants of these anti-democratic thinkers who remain imprisoned on the planet. Through the ages, these descendants have formed nations which warred and allied with one another to gain advantages over their rivals in the race to build a starship. Due to the metal-deficiency on Treason, nations are forced to obtain it through a system of barter using teleportation devices known as Ambassadors. The protagonist of the book is Lanik Mueller, heir apparent to the Mueller family kingdom. The Muellers, through generations of eugenics, have the ability to heal at an accelerated speed and regrow body parts naturally. The dark side to the Mueller nation is that, in order to obtain iron and other metals, they trade organs and body parts, which are harvested from radical regeneratives ("rads"). Radical regeneratives are people whose bodies can't distinguish between health and injury, and so grow extra appendages as well as organs of the opposite sex; although this is a normal phase for most Muellers at the age of puberty, the bodies of radical regeneratives never outgrow it. After it is discovered that Lanik is a radical regenerative, Lanik's father must essentially banish him from the kingdom, so as to avoid sending him to the "pens", a place where radical regeneratives are kept in order to harvest their body parts; exile also functions to get Lanik out of the eye of the Mueller public, as well as to prevent harm from coming to Lanik's supposed younger brother Dinte. The banishment comes in the form of sending Lanik as an emissary and spy to the Nkumai, a rival nation. Due to his radical regenerative body, Lanik has grown breasts, which makes him appear to be a woman. Using this subterfuge, he poses as an ambassador from the matriarchal nation of Bird in order to discover what the Nkumai are trading in exchange for their abundant metals, which have allowed them to dominate their region militarily. This mission is only the beginning of the adventure for Lanik, who discovers the secrets of the most powerful nations and at the same time gains additional abilities to save his people and determine the fate of his planet. 

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Railway Raju (nickname) is a disarmingly corrupt tour guide who is famous among tourists. He falls in love with a beautiful dancer, Rosie, the wife of archaeologist Marco. They have come to Malgudi, the fictional town in South India, as tourists. Marco does not approve of Rosie's passion for dancing. Rosie, encouraged by Raju, decides to follow her dreams and start a dancing career. In the process they become close to each other. On learning of their relationship, Marco leaves Rosie in Malgudi and goes back to Madras alone. Rosie turns up at the home of Raju and they start living together. But Raju's mother does not approve of their relationship, and leaves them. Raju becomes Rosie's stage manager and soon, with the help of Raju's marketing tactics, Rosie becomes a successful dancer. Raju, however, develops an inflated sense of self-importance and tries to control her life and he wants to build as much wealth as possible. Raju gets involved in a case of forgery of Rosie's signature and gets a two-year sentence despite Rosie's best efforts to save him. After completing the sentence, Raju passes through a village, Mangal where he is mistaken for a sadhu (a spiritual guide). Since he does not want to return in disgrace to Malgudi, he decides to stay in an abandoned temple, close to the village. There he plays the role of a Sadhu to perfection delivering sermons and discourses to the villagers and solving their day to day problems and disputes. Soon there is a famine in the village and villagers somehow get the idea that Raju will keep a fast in order to make it rain. Raju confesses the entire truth about his past to Velan, who had first discovered Raju in the temple and had developed a complete faith in him like the rest of the villagers. The confession does not make a difference to Velan and Raju decides to go on with the fast. With media publicizing his fast, a huge crowd gathers (much to Raju's resentment) to watch him fast. In the morning of the eleventh day of fasting, he goes to the riverside as part of his daily ritual. He feels that the rain is falling in the hills in the distance and he sags down in water. The ending of the novel leaves it to the reader to guess whether Raju died, and whether it rained. 

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Ro-Man Extension XJ-2 (Barrows), referred to as just Ro-Man (a creature with an ape's body and what is often and erroneously described as a diving helmet for a head), has destroyed all human life on Earth with a Calcinator death ray, except for eight humans who remain alive. The survivors are a Professor (John Mylong), whose name is never mentioned; his wife (Selena Royle); their two daughters, Alice (Barrett) and Carla (Pamela Paulson); their young son, Johnny (Gregory Moffett); the Professor's assistant, Roy (Nader); and space pilots Jason and McCloud (neither of whom is seen or heard). Both pilots depart in a rocket ship for an orbiting space platform. All eight have developed an immunity to Ro-Man's death ray, having received an experimental antibiotic serum developed by the Professor. Ro-Man must complete the destruction of all humans, even if it means his physically killing them one by one, before his mission to subjugate the Earth is complete. After fruitless negotiations, Ro-Man destroys Jason and McCloud's spaceship, along with the space platform. He later strangles Carla, then tosses Roy over a cliff to his death. Ro-Man's mission is waylaid, however, when he develops an illogical attraction to Alice and cannot bring himself to eliminate her. Great Guidance (referred to as "The Great One"), leader of the Ro-Man Empire, destroys both Johnny and Ro-Man with a Calcinator blast. The Great One continues the genocide with Cosmic June Rays, which cause prehistoric reptiles to appear (stock footage from the movie 1 Million Years B.C.); and psychotronic vibrations, which "smash the planet Earth out of the universe". But Johnny is alive, having just awakened from a concussion-induced fever dream. Up to now, all that has happened has just been his nightmare. His sisters, their mother, and the two scientists - whom the family met while picnicking in Bronson Canyon - rejoice at finding him. Johnny and his family invite the scientists home for dinner; they accept. Suddenly, the Great Guidance, his arms raised in a threatening manner, walks out of the cave. 

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Note: This synopsis applies to the European and Japanese productions only. The Broadway version (lasting for 56 performances) was heavily rewritten. In addition, portions of this synopsis may reflect later changes to the European show, which will become clear when one reads the song list below. 

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The book opens with a turf war between two computer design groups within Data General Corporation, a minicomputer vendor in the 1970s. Most of the senior designers are assigned the "sexy" job of designing the next-generation machine in North Carolina. Their project, code-named "Fountainhead", is to give Data General a machine to compete with the VAX computer from Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC), which is starting to take over the new 32-bit minicomputer market. Meanwhile, at the corporate headquarters at Westborough, Massachusetts, the few remaining senior designers there are assigned the much more humble job of improving Data General's existing products. Tom West, the leader of the Westborough designers, starts a skunkworks project. Code-named "Eagle", it becomes a backup plan in case Fountainhead fails, and then the company's only hope in catching up with DEC. In order to complete the project on time, West takes risks: he elects to use new technology, and he relies on new college graduates (who have never designed anything so complex) as the bulk of his design team. The book follows many of the designers as they give almost every waking moment of their lives to design and debug the new machine. 

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The plot involves a gang of Hells Angels-type bikers called "The Devil's Advocates" involved in the Vietnam War. They are sent to the Cambodian jungle on Yamaha bikes in order to rescue an American diplomat/CIA Agent, Chet Davis. The biker gang is led by Link Thomas, a Vietnam veteran and the brother of an Army Major who has recruited them. His gang consists of Duke, also a Vietnam veteran, Limpy, Speed, and another Vietnam veteran, Dirty Denny. They are under the orders of Army Captain Jackson. The gang modifies their motorcycles in a garage run by Diem-Nuc. They weld armour plating with submachine guns on the handlebars. Limpy drives a three-wheeler modified from a Harley-Davidson frame with a Volkswagen rear end, that is armed with heavy .50 calibre machine guns and a multiple rocket launcher from a helicopter. In order to open fire on enemy soldiers in trees or towers the gang do wheelies whilst firing their weapons. 

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During the 1950s, John Groberg (Gorham) graduates from Brigham Young University and is called on a 2-year mission to Tonga. Throughout the film, Groberg and his fiancée Jean (Hathaway) exchange letters monthly. After a long journey across the Pacific, Groberg arrives in Tonga and is sent to a group of very remote islands. He is assigned a native Tongan companion, Feki (Joe Folau). As a new missionary, he struggles with learning the language, and studies it intensely and learns more about Tongan culture. Groberg encounters a number of obstacles in his mission. One night, he forgets instructions he received to cover his feet and rats bite his soles while he is asleep. A local Christian minister warns the people not to listen to Groberg and Feki. Later, he sends four men to beat them. However, one of the men, Tomasi, prevents the attack. Groberg learns from the drunken Tomasi that he had been baptized a member of the LDS Church many years ago as a boy. Tomasi later begins attending church meetings. When a young boy falls out of a mango tree and becomes unconscious, Groberg gives him basic first aid and prays for him. When a young woman, at the behest of her family, attempts to seduce Elder Groberg, he responds by teaching her about marriage. A typhoon destroys trees, homes, and crops. People die in the storm, and many die due to starvation and dehydration. Groberg is close to dying himself when the local minister gives him the last of his food. After the supply boat finally arrives, the minister is found dead. Later, while traveling at sea, Groberg and his two counselors are caught in a large storm. He is washed overboard and fears for his life. He swims until he finds an island where he also locates his counselors, and they are later rescued and return to Tonga. Groberg returns one day to his hut to find that his mission president has come to visit the island. He is unhappy because he has not heard from Groberg since he came to this island many months prior. Groberg describes some of the success they have experienced, and the president is shocked to learn of new branches and meeting places on outer islands that have not been authorized. Groberg and his counselors spend the entire night filling out the church records the president requested. In the morning, he finds the president is about to board a boat, and gives him a large sheaf of forms documenting all they have accomplished. When his time as a missionary comes to an end, Groberg receives a telegram instructing him to return to New Zealand where he will travel to Idaho Falls, Idaho. When he is ready to depart, many islanders gather in their best clothing to see him off, testifying to the impact he has had during his stay. Once he arrives, he marries Jean and the two spend their honeymoon in a cottage by a beach. 

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Angelo Barberini is the oddball son of Italian immigrants Gino and Maria, who inadvertently ended up in Canada rather than the United States. Angelo shocks his parents – and his sister, Anna – by moving out on his own without getting married, and, shortly after that, shocks them further still when he reveals he is gay. But his boyfriend (and childhood best friend), policeman Nino Paventi, isn't as ready to come out of the closet – especially not to his busybody Sicilian mother, Lina. 

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When property developer Robert Stiles' limousine gets stuck in a sink hole on Possum Lodge's property and several attempts to recover it send it into the lake, Stiles takes the matter to court. The town council and the presiding judge, who have been looking for decades for a way to shut down the Lodge, fine the lodge $10,000 and give them thirty days to pay, and in default the Lodge reverts to the town. Red's nephew Harold Green (Patrick McKenna) pleads with the judge for a change to the time limit and she agrees - she makes it ten days instead. The Lodge members try to brainstorm a way out of the mess, but once again Harold is the only one with a viable idea - 3M is running a duct tape sculpture contest in Minnesota, with a third prize of $10,000 (which the members feel they have a shot at). The members beg, borrow and steal enough duct tape to construct a goose, and Red, Harold and Dalton Humphrey (Bob Bainborough) set off for the long ride to the contest. However, sinister forces are at work. Stiles has convinced the town's sheriff (Darren Frost) to stop the trio by any means necessary. The sheriff is accompanied by Dawn (Melissa DiMarco), his beautiful deputy, who against all logic is smitten with Harold, although Harold is currently smitten with Dalton's indifferent daughter. The sheriff attempts a number of dirty tricks in order to waylay Red. At one point he and Dawn flatten the Possum Van's tires, only to find out that Dalton has siphoned all the gas out of their police car, and that the nearest working gas pump is 20 miles away. At another point, the sheriff digs a hole in the road with a backhoe, but find their police car on the opposite side from the van. In attempting to use the backhoe to move the police car to the other side of the hole, the sheriff instead drops the car into the hole, and the Possum Van drives right over it. Eventually, Stiles takes matters into his own hands and kidnaps Harold. Red sends Dalton back to the lodge for reinforcements, as he plans to get away with both Harold and the goose. While Harold is suffering the company of Stiles, Stiles reveals that his father was a lazy Possum Lodge member, and that his mother's frustration over this fact drove him to succeed at any cost. He plans on buying Possum Lodge to convert it into a women's club called "Possum Landing." At noon the next day, Red and Stiles meet with Red backed by his lodge members, and Stiles backed by his gang of workers. Just as the exchange is made, Red makes a getaway with Harold and the goose as the lodge members steal the cars of the workers. Just as Red feels he has made his getaway, he finds that Stiles is chasing him with the only vehicle left from the site of the exchange – the bus that brought the lodge members to the showdown. Nevertheless, Red and Harold manage to make it to the contest just before they award third prize, winning it when the goose (pulled behind the Possum Van on a small trailer) detaches and flies over the contest to land majestically with all of the other entries. After the contest the members of the lodge gather in the meeting room to celebrate with a large cake. Harold has invited Stiles to the meeting, who takes it as an attempt to humiliate him, before realizing Harold has invited his elderly mother as well and the two reconcile. While the candles on the cake are lit, Dawn entices Harold outside where they share a passionate kiss before the candles (which are revealed to be dynamite) explode. The film ends with a dazed Harold rejoining the group as Red asks for the duct tape to repair the damage. 

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Amanda Shelton (Sarah Michelle Gellar) inherits her late mother's restaurant, but lacks her mother's ability to cook. The restaurant is failing when Amanda meets a mysterious and possibly magical man at the local market. He introduces himself as Gene O'Reilly and claims to be an old friend of her mother's. He sells her crabs, one of which escapes cooking to become her personal mascot. Amanda meets her love interest at the market, Tom Bartlett (Sean Patrick Flanery), a department store manager at Henri Bendel on Fifth Avenue, who is opening an ambitious new restaurant inside his store. It is never explicitly explained why, but this eventful day transforms Amanda into a miraculous food magician; people who now eat her impressive new dishes start feeling exactly what she was feeling when she was making the dish. These are inspired by her emotions and created with the help of her magic crab. Amanda saves her restaurant overnight, and her relationship with Tom blossoms just as fast. However, Tom, being a career- minded control freak, panics when he realizes that not only could she be a witch who could be casting spells on him, but that his own emotions are getting the best of him, and he promptly dumps her. When Amanda goes to confront Tom one last time at his office, she witnesses the violent tantrum and resignation of a celebrity French chef hired for the opening of Tom's new restaurant. When it is discovered that Amanda is in fact the hot new chef in town everyone is talking about, she is hired on the spot, despite Tom's protests. Once Amanda overcomes her self-doubts and insecurities, she reaches her full potential as a chef, and the opening is a complete success. Though Tom refuses to taste Amanda's food during the opening, he eventually admits to himself he was wrong to reject Amanda because she made him feel emotional. He finally decides to embrace his feelings for her and goes after her. At the last minute, he reaches her with his own personal magic (a paper airplane), and the two reconcile on the dance floor. 

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Ann Darrow, a down-on-her-luck actress looking for work, meets film director Carl Denham, who offers her a job in a new film. They board the Venture to leave for the film shoot. The monkey that lives on board causes trouble throughout the trip. They arrive on the island and after a run-in with the natives, Ann then sacrificed to the giant ape King Kong who makes off with her into the jungle. Together they fight a Tyrannosaurus, Pterodactylus and a Gigantophis. The film then follows Kong's rampage of New York City. Kong takes Ann up on top of the Empire State Building. The biplanes come and attack Kong with guns, but miss most of the time. When all the planes have been knocked down the army sends two blimps with a net in between them to catch Kong. They catch him successfully. Kong tries to get out of the net, but the net rips and when Kong reaches for Ann, he falls from the net. He bangs into a balcony and plummets to the ground. During his fall he is shown crying. Kong's "mightyness" ends when he slams into the streets of New York. However, Kong survives the fall. 

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Cutey Bunny (sometimes labeled "QT Bunny" for short) is secretly Cpl. Kelly O'Hare, a special agent for the United States, based in Washington, D.C. and employed by an unspecified branch of the United States Armed Forces. She is dispatched on special missions, usually directly by the President, and encounters action and adventure; frequent adversaries include Vicky Feldhyser, a kinky lesbian fox who's described as a "four-ple" agent (one level beyond "triple") for various intelligence services, and "Uncle Joe", a transparent caricature of Joseph Stalin. 

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The plot revolves around a Union Army regiment and an artillery battery from the American Civil War which get transported to an alien world. The 35th Maine Infantry regiment and the 44th New York Light Artillery battery are being transported by ship from Virginia late in the war when they encounter a mysterious electrical storm and end up on a distant planet. The region they are in is populated by descendants of medieval Russians (or "Rus") who still live a feudal existence at a medieval level of technology. They learn from their new hosts that there are various civilizations on this world made up of the descendants of people from various eras of Earth history. The Union soldiers eventually discover a terrible secret that their Rus hosts have been keeping from them when the Tugar arrive. The Tugar are ten foot tall aliens with a culture and technology similar to that of the Mongol Horde. They ride a never-ending circuit around the planet. They have subjugated the human populations in their territory and use them as food. The Tugar visit each human society once a generation and cull part of the population for food. This culling keeps the humans docile and compliant and the Tugar make sure that none of the human societies become advanced enough to challenge them. The Union men are horrified by this revelation and kill the Tugar advance scouts. They then support a peasant rebellion against the Tugar-appointed lords and begin modernizing the Rus society. When the Tugar arrive they encounter a semi modern army equipped with cannons and smoothbore muskets. In a hard-fought battle the humans manage to prevail, weakening the Tugar Horde forever. The next several books take up the story a few years later. The Rus have begun to explore union with the Romans who live in the territory next to theirs and who were spared from the Tugar depredation by the Rus victory. Meanwhile they face a renewed threat from the Merki Horde, members of the same alien race as the Tugars. The Merki make the same circumnavigation of the globe as the Tugars do, but in a zone further south. Once the Merki learn of the Tugar hoard's weakening they then seek to take advantage of the Rus. Realizing the disastrous effects that would come from an industrialized enemy, they seek to maintain their racial dominance over the humans through the annihilation of those who have learned the secrets of gunpowder and industrialization. The Merki are aided by a group of Union sailors who fled the Tugar war on the ship which brought the 35th Maine and 44th New York to this world. In exchange for their survival, the humans help the Merki develop firearms and other technology. The Merki attack is more successful than the Tugar one and forces the humans to abandon the Rus territory in a scorched earth campaign, but eventually they win with their use of trains. Several years later the expanding human alliance faces a new threat in the form of the Bantag. The Bantag are a horde from even further south. They are led by a member of their race who arrived from another world which has a late 20th-century level of technology. This alien, a soldier on his own world, assumes a messianic role among the Bantag and modernizes their society to equal, and even surpass that of the humans. He is familiar with atomic reactors as well as centerfire rifles. The Bantag scavenge engines from decaying cities abandoned by their people millennia ago and use them to power airplanes. The reader learns that the people of the Bantag had once been a technologically advanced starfaring race, visiting many different planets and seeding teleportation devices across them. The civilization on their homeworld collapsed in nuclear war but the teleportation devices remained sporadically active and ended up transporting various humans to the planet Vallenia (the location of the novel), though Vallenia was not the homeworld of the Tugar/Merki/Bantag race. Using their advanced technology the Bantag attack the Union( introducing in the process steampunk tanks and 20th century mortars. However the humans develop their own flying machines (mainly blimps and early Zeppelins) and counterattack. The final book in the series, Down to the Sea, takes place a generation after the arrival of the 35th Maine. With the children of the original regiment members reaching adulthood they face a new threat from across the southern sea, the Kazars, aliens who have an early 20th-century level of technology and who also have a selectively bred slave race of human assassins, the Shiv. 

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Ever since Seth Warner's (Aidan Quinn) wife died two years ago, his life has gone to pieces. In his rage, he affronts God who seemingly responds by stopping his suicide attempt and his screaming at God above by crippling his dog and putting Seth in the hospital. So Seth sets out to break all of the ten commandments. Moving in with his sister-in-law, Rachel (Courteney Cox), and her reporter-husband, Harry (Anthony LaPaglia), he systematically starts breaking each of the commandments, increasingly aided by Harry and Rachel. When Rachel finds out Harry has been having an affair, she responds by having an affair with Seth. Seth then steals all of Harry's personally autographed guitars and pawns them. Harry loses his job and finds out Rachel is pregnant with Seth's baby. Seth attempts to kill himself, but is swallowed by a whale and the belly is cut open and Seth is released. Rachel decides to marry Seth and raise the baby with him. Harry stands on top of a building with Seth's crippled dog the same way Seth did before and asks for a sign from God. Perhaps to be saved like Seth was. 

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This is the story of Mexican diva Reny, Puerto Rican singing legend Chayanne, Poncho and Jessica. Reny is a 26-year-old whose father leaves her a fortune upon dying, and who dreams of someday meeting Chayanne, who is (in real life and in the telenovela) an international singing star and teen idol. The dream comes true because Reny's boyfriend, named Santiago is a music producer and he arranges for the meeting to happen after one of Chayanne's concerts. As the drama unfolds, Reny becomes famous and she and Chayanne start a close friendship which later turns into romance. Santiago becomes increasingly jealous and evil. Reny becomes afraid of Santiago and starts seeing him less and less. Then Santiago's lawyer, Tony, starts to develop an interest for Reny. While all this is going, in Reny's house, her sister Sandra, becomes increasingly jealous of Reny's success and the fact their father left Reni the family fortune. Unknown to the TV viewer for most of the soap is the fact Sandra had a degenerative mental illness and that was why Reny's father left Reny the fortune and not Sandra. Sandra and Santiago have a diabolic plan where they will make Reny have an accident during one of her concerts, and the plan works, leaving Reny paralyzed and with amnesia after her fall. Eventually, she recovers her mind and begins to walk again, and she plans her return to the world of show business under the name of Chaquira (not to be confused with the real life singer Shakira). She uses that name so not to tip off her enemies as to who she really is and that she's still alive. Through all of this, and before Reny's accident happened, a fan of hers, Lalo, becomes her friend and falls in love with her, causing the ire of Jessica, who has just broken up with Poncho. Jessica becomes enemies with Reny and her attraction towards Lalo in turn makes Poncho mad and jealous too. Chayanne had to go away from Reny because of his professional compromises and Tony started to move in on her. He became her greatest friend during the time she was in the wheelchair, and a great deal of love grew between them. Tony ended up protecting Reny from Santiago, who ends up paralyzed. Jessica moved to Guadalajara, Jalisco after finding she was suffering a terrible disease, Lalo purposely gets himself killed in a motorcycle crash, Chayanne decides that he and Reny should stay only as good friends because of their busy singing career schedules. Sandra gets committed to a mental hospital, Reny starts using her real name again and makes a big comeback into the musical world, she goes on tour, and Tony marries her and they have a family. 

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Episode 1: Mr Charles Bingley, a wealthy gentleman from the north of England, settles down at Netherfield estate near Meryton village in Hertfordshire for the autumn. Mrs Bennet, unlike her husband, is excited at the prospect of marrying off one of her five daughters (Jane, Elizabeth, Mary, Kitty, and Lydia) to the newcomer. Bingley takes an immediate liking to Jane at a local country dance, while his best friend Mr Fitzwilliam Darcy, rumoured to be twice as rich, refuses to dance with anyone, including Elizabeth. Elizabeth's poor impression of his character is confirmed at a later gathering at Lucas Lodge, and she and Darcy verbally clash on the two nights she spends at Netherfield, caring for the sick Jane who fell ill after riding in the rain. Episode 2: Mr William Collins, a sycophantic dimwitted clergyman, visits his cousins, the Bennets. As Mr & Mrs Bennett do not have a son, he is the entailed heir of their home and estate, Longbourn. He intends to marry a Bennet daughter as an act of benign goodwill to prevent Mrs Bennet and her unwed daughters being rendered homeless once Mr Collins inherits the estate. He therefore invites himself for a two-week visit to get to know the Bennets better and select a daughter to marry. However, the Bennet girls judge Mr Collins to be a rather ridiculous man, an "oddity" with many peculiarities of speech and deportment. They nevertheless treat him civilly and take him to balls and social events in Meryton. One day, while on a walk around Meryton village, they meet members of a newly arrived militia regiment, including a Mr George Wickham. At a social event, Wickham befriends Elizabeth and claims that his father was the steward for Darcy's late father, and that he originally planned to join the clergy. However, Darcy denied Wickham the "living" (a curacy) that Mr Darcy's father promised him. At a ball at Netherfield, Darcy asks Elizabeth to dance, which she grudgingly but politely accepts. Mrs Bennet tells Mr Collins that she expects Jane to soon be engaged, so he instead proposes to Elizabeth. She resoundingly rejects him. While Mrs Bennet reacts angrily to Elizabeth's decision, her close friend, Charlotte Lucas, invites Mr Collins to visit at Lucas Lodge. Episode 3: Elizabeth is stunned and appalled to learn that Charlotte Lucas has accepted Mr Collins' marriage proposal. When the Netherfield party departs for London in autumn, Jane stays with her modest London relatives, the Gardiners, but she soon notices that the Bingleys ignore her. After befriending Mr Wickham, Elizabeth departs for the Collins' home in Kent in the spring to visit Charlotte. They live near Rosings, the estate of the formidable Lady Catherine de Bourgh, Darcy's aunt. Elizabeth meets Darcy several times. Elizabeth learns of Darcy's direct responsibility for Jane and Bingley's separation. Soon after, Darcy unexpectedly tells her that he admires her and loves her, so much that in spite of her greatly inferior social standing, he proposes marriage. Elizabeth flatly rejects him, noting his arrogant, disagreeable, and proud character, and for his part in her sister's failed romance and Mr Wickham's misfortune. Episode 4: Darcy justifies his previous actions in a long letter to Elizabeth: he misjudged Jane's affection for Bingley, and he exposes Wickham as a gambler who once attempted to elope with his young sister, Georgiana, to obtain her inheritance. Back at Longbourn, Mr Bennet allows Lydia to accompany the militia to Brighton as a personal friend of the militia colonel's wife. Elizabeth joins the Gardiners on a sightseeing trip to Derbyshire and visits Pemberley, Darcy's estate, during his absence. Greatly impressed by the immense scale and richness of the estate, Elizabeth listens to the housekeeper's earnest tales of her master's lifelong goodness, while Darcy refreshes from his unannounced journey home by taking a swim in a pond. After an unexpected and awkward encounter with Elizabeth, a damp Darcy is able to prevent the party's premature departure with an unusual degree of friendliness and politeness. Episode 5: Elizabeth and the Gardiners receive an invitation to Pemberley, where Darcy and Elizabeth share significant glances. The next morning, Elizabeth receives two letters from Jane, revealing that Lydia has eloped with Wickham. As Elizabeth is about to return to Longbourn, Darcy arrives and offers help, but upon hearing the bad news about Lydia, becomes disturbed and leaves in haste. Elizabeth supposes she will never see him again. The Bennets are all dismayed by the scandal, until Mr Gardiner writes that Lydia and Wickham have been found. They are not married, but soon will be under the Gardiners' care. The Bennets are relieved, but Mr Bennet wonders what it cost Mr Gardiner to get Wickham to marry a girl with no fortune. Elizabeth tells Jane of her last meeting with Darcy, including her ambivalent feelings for him. Episode 6: After Lydia carelessly mentions Darcy's involvement in her wedding, Mrs Gardiner enlightens Elizabeth: Darcy found the errant couple and paid for everything, including a large payoff to Wickham. When Bingley and Darcy return to Netherfield in the autumn, Darcy apologises to Bingley for interfering in his relationship with Jane and gives his blessing for the couple to wed. Lady Catherine de Bourgh, who intends for Darcy to marry her sickly daughter, Anne, has heard rumours of an engagement between Darcy and Elizabeth. She calls on Elizabeth, demanding that she deny the engagement and renounce Darcy forever. Elizabeth verifies there is no engagement, but refuses any pledge for the future. When Elizabeth thanks Darcy for his role in Lydia's marriage, Lady Catherine's story had encouraged Darcy to reconfirm his feelings for Elizabeth. Elizabeth admits the complete transformation of her feelings and agrees to an engagement, taking her family by surprise. The series ends with a double winter wedding: Jane to Bingley, and Elizabeth to Darcy. 

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Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong are hanging out at the beach one day when they come across some mysterious objects that resemble barrels. Fearing they had something to do with King K. Rool, they take them to Cranky Kong. Cranky explains that they are bongos, so Donkey tries playing them. Diddy tries to do so as well. Then, when Donkey claps, the bongos start glowing. Cranky explains that the bongos have some kind of power inside them. Donkey and Diddy continue to play the bongos, but they both play terribly. Cranky advises them to practice. At first they are against this, but then they realize if they can become successful in playing the bongos, they could afford as many bananas as they wish, so they start practicing. 

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Pierre Lachenay (Jean Desailly), a well-known writer and editor of a literary magazine, is running late for his flight to Lisbon. His friend gives him a ride to the airport, with his daughter Sabine going along for the ride, and they arrive just in time. On the airplane he makes eye contact with a beautiful air hostess named Nicole (Françoise Dorléac). Upon landing, he is greeted by photographers who ask that he pose with the air hostess. Pierre checks in at the Hotel Tivoli, and then leaves to attend a conference. As he's walking through the lobby he notices Nicole walking past him. At the conference he gives a talk titled "Balzac and Money" based on one of his books. Back at the hotel, he sees Nicole in the lift and notices her room number. In his room he calls her room and asks if she'd like a drink, but she declines because of the late hour. Shortly after hanging up, Nicole calls back, apologizes, and accepts his invitation for drinks the next day at the hotel bar. The next evening, Pierre and Nicole spend hours talking through the night. She is captivated by his stories of Balzac and the world of literature. In the early hours they return to the hotel and make love in her room. On the aeroplane the next day, Nicole slips him a matchbook with her phone number. Back in Paris, while he and his wife Franca (Nelly Benedetti) entertain friends, Pierre sneaks off and tries calling Nicole, but there is no one home. The next day he tries again from a phone booth, and this time he gets through, and they meet briefly. In the coming days, they spend time together between her flights. One day they meet at the airport and decide to spend the evening at a nightclub, ending up at her apartment where they make love. Later that week, Pierre and Nicole travel to Reims where Pierre is scheduled to present a showing of the 1952 documentary film about André Gide at a conference. They check into the Hotel Michelet before Pierre heads over to the theatre. After Pierre takes to the stage, Nicole arrives without a ticket and is forced to wait in the lobby during his speech. Afterwards, Pierre's friend insists on having a drink before Pierre returns to Paris. As they leave, Pierre ignores Nicole who has been waiting in the street. When his friend invites himself to accompany him back to Paris, Pierre sneaks back to the hotel where an upset Nicole tells him he should leave without her. He apologises and they decide to leave. After driving through the night they find a romantic cabin. The next day, Pierre and Nicole enjoy their time together taking photographs. Their happiness is cut short, however, when Pierre calls his wife to tell her he had to stay in Reims overnight. Having called Reims the previous night, Franca suspects he's lying and hangs up in anger. After driving Nicole home, Pierre faces his wife and they argue. Franca accuses him of having an affair and Pierre walks out of their apartment, spending the night sleeping in his office. The following morning, Franca calls him at the office informing him that she will never forgive him for walking out on her and that he'll be contacted by her divorce lawyer. Pierre goes to Nicole's apartment, but she is unable to talk because her father is about to visit. Pierre passes her father on the stairwell as he's leaving. Back at his apartment, Pierre and Franca discuss their divorce and Franca falls apart, sometimes hitting him and at other times begging for his forgiveness. They make love, and afterwards she asks if he will be coming back. He tells her it would never work out with all that's happened. She slams the door behind him. Overcome with depression, Franca is comforted by her friend Odile, who throws away the sleeping pills she finds in the bathroom fearing her friend may attempt suicide. Later that week, Pierre and Nicole have dinner and argue after Pierre gets annoyed and embarrassed by her talking loudly; the stress of divorce after fifteen years of marriage is having an effect on him. Later, as he shows her their future apartment under construction, Nicole expresses regret at having become involved with him and breaks off their relationship. Meanwhile, Franca is given a photo shop receipt from one of Pierre's jackets by a dry cleaner and goes to pick up the photographs - the ones Pierre and Nicole took on their weekend away together. After seeing the photos, Franca goes home, gets a shotgun from her closet, drives to Le Val d'Isère Bar which Pierre frequents, walks up to his corner table, tosses the photos at him, and then shoots him dead. 

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Ninja Nonsense is an absurdist comedy centering on Shinobu, a ninja apprentice, who is attempting to pass her ninja exams while Kaede, a normal schoolgirl, studies for her school exams. As a part of her exam, Shinobu is ordered to break into Kaede's room to steal her panties by her instructor, Onsokumaru. Shinobu, who despite her enthusiasm, possesses little if any actual ninja skills, believes herself to be invisible and 'sneaks' into Kaede's room. Since Shinobu is perfectly visible to Kaede, the mission does not go as planned. Despite all of this, Kaede takes pity on Shinobu and the two become close friends. Shinobu trains alongside other male ninjas identical in appearance, though one is known as Sasuke. 

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Stranded in the space between the human world and the demon underworld, the series central characters are a Japanese vampire girl named Miyu and her Western Shinma companion Larva. Miyu is the daughter of both a human being and a Shinma (a name for a race of "god-demon"). She was born a vampire and as such, she was awakened as the guardian whose destiny is to hunt down all stray Shinma and send them back to "the Darkness"; charged with the responsibility of returning the evil demons away. Before turning 15 years old, she yearns to return to the darkness herself but not until she has banished all the Shinma from Earth. And since her awakening, she remains cut off by the facts of who and what she is. Most locations in the series are evocative of traditional Japan. 

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The plot of The Last Hurrah focuses on a mayoral election in an unnamed East Coast city. Veteran Irish, Democratic Party politician Frank Skeffington is running for yet another term as mayor. As a former governor, he is usually called by the honorific title "Governor." While the city is never named, it is frequently assumed to be Boston. Skeffington is assumed to represent Boston Mayor and Massachusetts Governor James Michael Curley. The story is told in the third person, either by a narrator or by Adam Caulfield, the mayor's nephew. Skeffington is a veteran and adept "machine" politician, and probably corrupt as well. The novel portrays him as a flawed great man with many achievements to his credit. At the beginning of the book, Skeffington is 72 and has been giving signs that he might consider retiring from public life at the end of his current term. He surprises many by announcing what he had always intended to do: run for another term as mayor. The main body of the novel gives a detailed and insightful view of urban politics, tracking Skeffington and his nephew through rounds of campaign appearances and events, thereby showcasing a dying brand of politics and painting a broad picture of political life in general. His opponent, Kevin McCluskey, is a neophyte candidate with a handsome face and good manners, a good World War II record but no political experience, and no real abilities for politics or governing. However, McCluskey gets support from a new campaign medium: television advertising. Surprisingly, McClusky defeats Skeffington on election day. One of Adam's friends explains that the election was "a last hurrah" for the kind of old-style machine politics that Skeffington had mastered. Developments in American public life, including the consequences of the New Deal, have so changed the face of city politics that Skeffington no longer can survive in the new age with younger voters. Also, prophetically, for the first time, television ads win the day. Immediately after his defeat, Skeffington suffers a massive heart attack and another soon afterward. When he dies, he leaves behind a city in mourning for a pivotal figure in its history but no longer with room for either him or his kind. 

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An acting company prepares to rehearse the play Mixing it Up by Luigi Pirandello. As the rehearsal is about to begin, they are unexpectedly interrupted by the arrival of six strange people. The Director of the play, furious at the interruption, demands an explanation. The Father explains that they are unfinished characters in search of an author to finish their story. The Director initially believes them to be mad, but as they begin to argue among themselves and reveal details of their story, he begins to listen. The Father and The Mother had one child together (The Son), but they have separated and Mother has had three children by another man – The Stepdaughter, The Boy and The Child (a girl). The Father attempted to buy sex from The Stepdaughter, claiming he did not recognize her after so many years, but The Stepdaughter is convinced he knew who she was the entire time. The Mother walked in on The Father and The Stepdaughter shortly after The Father's proposal and informs The Stepdaughter that he is her ex-husband; they both express their disgust and outrage. While The Director is not an author, he agrees to stage their story despite disbelief among the jeering actors. After a 20-minute break, The Characters and The Company return to the stage to perform some of the story so far. They begin to perform the scene between The Stepdaughter and The Father in Madame Pace's shop, which the Director decides to call Scene I. The Characters are very particular about the setting, wanting everything to be as realistic as possible. The Director asks The Actors to observe the scene because he intends for them to perform it later. This sparks the first argument between The Director and The Characters over the acting of the play because The Characters had assumed that they would be performing it, seeing as they are The Characters already. The Director continues the play, but The Stepdaughter has more problems with the accuracy of the setting, saying she doesn't recognize the scene. Just as The Director is about to begin the scene once more, he realizes that Madame Pace is not with them. The Actors watch in disbelief as The Father lures her to the stage by hanging their coats and hats on racks, and Madame Pace follows, "attracted by the very articles of her trade". The scene begins between Madame Pace and The Stepdaughter, with Madame Pace exhorting The Stepdaughter, telling her she must work as a prostitute to save The Mother's job. The Mother protests at having to watch the scene, but she is restrained. After The Father and The Stepdaughter act half of the scene, The Director stops them so that The Actors may perform what they have just done. The Characters break into laughter as The Actors try to imitate them. The Actors continue but The Stepdaughter cannot contain her laughter as The Actors use the wrong tones of voice and gestures. The Father begins another argument with The Director over the realism of The Actors compared to The Characters themselves. The Director allows The Characters to perform the rest of the scene and decides to have the rehearsals later. This time, The Stepdaughter explains the rest of the scene during an argument with The Director over the truth on stage. The scene culminates in an embrace between The Father and The Stepdaughter, which is realistically interrupted by the distressed Mother. The line between reality and acting is blurred as the scene closes with The Director pleased with the first act. The final act of the play begins in the garden. It is revealed that there was much arguing among the family members as The Father sent for The Mother, The Stepdaughter, The Child, The Boy, and The Son to come back and stay with him. The Son reveals that he hates the family for sending him away and does not consider The Stepdaughter or the others a part of his family. The scene ends with The Child drowning in a fountain, The Boy committing suicide with a revolver, and The Stepdaughter running out of the theater, leaving The Son, The Mother, and The Father on stage. The play ends with The Director confused over whether it was real or not, concluding that in either case he lost a whole day over it. 

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Stan Ross is the franchise player of the Milwaukee Brewers baseball team. After recording his 3,000th hit, the selfish, narcissistic Ross immediately retires, leaving the team without one of its star players in the middle of the 1995 playoff race, showing every bit of disregard for his teammates' feelings. During the next nine years, Ross uses his nickname as a business tool, owning several profitable properties under the name "Mr. 3000" that make him increasingly wealthy. In 2004, the Brewers retire Ross' number so they can get rid of Ross for good, and also draw a large crowd. Although many fans come to the ceremony, other players, including teammates and fellow stars Robin Yount, Cecil Cooper, and Paul Molitor, stay away. Only his best friend Anthony (Boca) Carter and a middle relief pitcher from his early days in the majors named Bill (Big Horse) Berelli attend, and the ex-pitcher chastises Ross for his arrogant attitude. Ross learns that, due to a clerical error, he retired with 2,997 hits instead of 3,000. The error also partially contributes to Ross not being voted into the Baseball Hall of FameVoters have elected all eligible (Pete Rose is ineligible) players with 3,000 or more hits to the Hall of Fame, except for controversial player Rafael Palmeiro. and makes his "Mr. 3000" marketing gimmick inaccurate. Ross seeks to return to the game at the age of 47 to get three more hits, secure his place in the record books, and keep his local post-career marketing gimmick intact. A top Brewers executive, citing the large attendance at Ross' number retirement ceremony and the fact that the Brewers are out of playoff contention, agrees to bring Ross back during the September roster expansion. The team's younger players only know of Ross as a self-centered player, and team superstar Rex "T-Rex" Pennebaker, who is pompous and arrogant like Ross, sees him as unneeded and too old to play. Manager Gus Panas refuses to speak to Ross because of his abrupt retirement, and the sportswriters continually criticize him. Despite his predictions to the contrary Ross struggles to regain his baseball form. He goes hitless in his first 27 at-bats. His comeback is reported by television sportscaster Maureen "Mo" Simmons, who resumes a former romantic relationship with Ross. He gets two hits, including a home run, to increase his career total to 2,999. Ross becomes a mentor to the younger players and urges Pennebaker to learn from his own mistakes as a baseball star and to be a team player, so that Pennebaker will not end up like him – all alone. This inspires the Brewers to a late-season comeback and a respectable finish. Ross attempts to become serious with Simmons and make her a permanent part of his life, but she is reluctant to believe he is a changed man, particularly after he skips a team practice to go on national television with Jay Leno and begin boasting again. In his last at-bat of the season, with a chance to be a hero, Ross has a vision of his earlier years, when he was considered always dependable for the team. It inspires him to sacrifice his last chance with a bunt instead so the team can win a game and finish third in its division. Although Ross never reaches the "3,000" milestone, his newfound generosity and attitude gets him inducted into the Hall of Fame. He renames his businesses "Mr. 2,999." 

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Matt Simon, a young advertising executive, returns to Chicago with his fiancée, after spending the last two years in New York. He bumps into his old friend Luke on the way into a meeting at a restaurant, in preparation for a business trip to China. Once inside, Matt thinks he overhears Lisa, the beautiful dancer he was in love with two years before, who had vanished overnight. Unable to confront the woman he believes may be Lisa, he blows off the trip and instead embarks on an obsessive search for her, as the story of Matt and Lisa's romance unfolds in flashbacks. A key card which the woman leaves at the restaurant leads Matt to a hotel, where he finds Lisa's silver compact and an article marked in a newspaper. He leaves a note for Lisa at the restaurant bar, borrows Luke's car, and trails the man from the newspaper article to an apartment. There Matt discovers a note to Lisa under the door, with her key enclosed. The apartment is deserted, but he leaves Lisa a note himself, to meet him in Wicker Park, and keeps the key. An ecstatic Matt returns the car to Luke, who is furious because he has missed a date with his new girlfriend Alex. When Alex calls, Matt takes the blame and Luke is mollified. The next day, after waiting in vain at Wicker Park, Matt goes back to the apartment and is caught by a woman who is also named Lisa. She says the apartment is hers, but she has a coat and red-soled shoes with a broken heel identical to Lisa's—shoes that came from Luke's shop, where Lisa first met Matt. She says that she was at the hotel because the man in the newspaper was stalking her, and asks Matt to stay the night. They end up sleeping together. Flashbacks reveal that this "Lisa" is actually Alex, Lisa's old neighbor and friend. Alex had fallen in love with Matt from afar, but he met and fell for Lisa before Alex found the courage to speak to him. The man from the newspaper was stalking Lisa, and Alex agreed to swap apartments with her for a few days before Lisa left for a new job in London. Luke persuades Matt to come with him that night to see Alex perform in Twelfth Night. She is unrecognizable in stage makeup, but panics after she sees Matt in the audience with Luke. Matt returns to the apartment, feels the real Lisa's presence in spite of its emptiness, and spends the night. Alex sleeps with Luke that night; in the morning, when Matt calls Luke, she answers the phone then drops it in a panic. She overhears Luke say Matt is at the apartment, and runs out to call him and meet him there. After receiving Matt's note at the restaurant, Lisa calls and asks Luke to tell Matt to meet her at three o'clock, saying he will know where. When Alex arrives at the apartment, Matt gives her another pair of red-soled shoes, Lisa's size, but they are too big. She realizes he suspects something, but Matt says he can exchange them and leaves. Alex then calls Luke and asks him to meet her at the restaurant. Now suspicious, Matt follows "Lisa" (Alex), bumps into Luke, and follows him into the restaurant to finally meet Alex, the girl Luke is in love with. Matt confronts Alex, her deception revealed. A flashback reveals that two years ago, the same day that Matt asked Lisa to move in with him, Lisa was offered a last minute job touring with a show in Europe and had to jump on a plane. Lisa had given Alex a note to deliver to Matt, telling him she loved him and wanted to live with him. Instead, Alex had kept the note, deleted all the messages Lisa had left for Matt on his answering machine, and told Lisa that she had caught Matt in bed with another woman. Matt never learned why Lisa left, seemingly without a word. In the present, a confused Luke tells Matt that Lisa called and wants him to meet her at three o'clock before she returns to London. Matt is unsure where to meet, but Alex gives him Lisa's old note and he realizes that Lisa is at Wicker Park. Arriving too late, Matt then races to the airport, and is met by Rebecca, who has come to pick him up from the business trip to China he never went on. He confesses that he still loves someone else and cannot marry her. Lisa is nearby on the phone, listening to Alex admit what she has done and apologize. Matt sees Lisa through the crowd and comes up behind her. She senses he is there, turns to kiss him, and they are reunited. 

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In 1950, during the Cold War, František (Franta) Sláma (Ondřej Vetchý) is incarcerated in Czechoslovakia, because of his prior service in the RAF. His recollections of the war begin in 1939, just days prior to the German invasion of Czechoslovakia. After the invasion, the Czechoslovak Army is disbanded and its Air Force has to surrender its aircraft. However, young pilots Franta and his friend Karel Vojtíšek (Kryštof Hádek), among others, refuse to submit to their occupiers and flee to the United Kingdom to join the RAF. The British make the Czechoslovaks retrain from the basics, which infuriates them, especially Karel, who is both impatient to fight the Germans and humiliated at being retaught what he already knows. Karel also sees the compulsory English language lessons as a pointless waste of his time. The RAF is in such a dire need of pilots during the Battle of Britain that eventually the Czechoslovak airmen are allowed to fly. After their first sortie they realise why the British have trained them so intensely: a young Czechoslovak nicknamed "Tom Tom" is shot down by a Messerschmitt Bf 109. Franta becomes the unit commander, with the younger Karel under his charge. While shooting at a Heinkel He 111 bomber, the rear gunner hits Karel's Spitfire fighter aircraft. However, he manages to bail out and find his way to a farm. There he meets and falls in love with Susan (Tara Fitzgerald), although she thinks he is far too young. The next day, after returning to the aerodrome, Karel brings Franta to meet Susan. The latter begins to get on well with Susan, although Karel believes that he is still Susan's boyfriend. Following a mission to France where the squadron attacks a train, Karel is shot down, but Franta lands and rescues him, a move that shows that their friendship endures. Soon after, Karel learns a sort of love triangle has developed, with Susan being involved with Franta, which leads to a quarrel between the two friends. A few missions later, while escorting American bombers, Franta's Spitfire malfunctions and he is forced to ditch into the ocean. His life raft bursts as he tries to inflate it, so Karel decides to drop his own raft, but he flies too low and fatally crashes. The raft emerges from the water, allowing Franta to survive until he is rescued. Afterward, when the war is over, Franta drives to Susan's home, only to find her with her injured husband recently returned from fighting overseas. Knowing he has no future with Susan and wanting to preserve her honour, he pretends to have lost his way and asks directions to the next town. Disappointed by what has happened, Franta returns to Czechoslovakia and finds his old girlfriend has married the neighbourhood jobsworth, has given birth to a child, and has taken over Barča, his dog. All Franta can do is endure the situation as stoically as he can. Arrested and thrown in prison, he only has his memories of his friendship with Karel to sustain him. 

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Twelve-year-old Glen has a nightmare of finding his home abandoned, then going into his tree-house only for it to be struck by lightning and collapse. When he wakes he finds that in his backyard, workers have cut down the same tree from his nightmare and unearthed a geode. Glen returns with older friend Terry to investigate. Though the workers attempted to fill the hole left by the tree, Glen and Terry breach the surface, finding a large geode. Glen catches a splinter and leaves a small amount of blood behind. Glen's parents leave town for three days, placing his 15-year-old sister Alexandra ("Al") in charge. While Al throws a party, Terry and Glen break open the geode after discovering it has left strange writing on a notepad, and read the incantations aloud. They go downstairs just as the party-goers are playing a levitation game. Everyone is shocked when they levitate Glen. That night Glen sees his bedroom wall stretching, and Terry embraces an apparition of his dead mother that turns out to be Glen's dog Angus, who dies as a result. The next day, Terry brings a heavy metal album to Glen's house with lyrics based on "The Dark Book". He believes the hole in Glen's backyard is a gateway to a domain of evil gods, and speculates that their actions opened it. He concludes that the only missing element would be to deposit a sacrifice into the hole. Unknown to them, a friend of Al's dumps Angus's body into the hole, completing the summoning. After reading a section from "The Dark Book" that is supposed to close the gateway, the boys find the hole closed and assume their efforts succeeded. That night, a swarm of moths shatter Glen's bedroom window, and Angus' corpse is found in Terry's bed. Demonic arms try pulling Al under her bed; Terry and Glen barely save her. They try fleeing the house, but are greeted outside by Glen and Al's parents, actually disguised demons. After returning to the house Al volunteers to inspect the yard, but the others see it swarming with small demons and call her back. Terry leads everyone to the basement to retrieve "The Dark Book", but it bursts into flames. They then attempt to stop the creatures by reading the Bible. Terry reads from Psalm 59 and the hole begins to close, but he slips and falls into the hole. Terry is attacked by the small demons before Al and Glen pull him out. Terry reads from Genesis, then throws the Bible into the hole, causing an explosion that appears to seal the hole. That night, a wall breaks open and a construction worker's corpse falls through (Terry had previously told Glen a story that when his house was built a worker died and they sealed him inside a wall). The worker pulls Terry into the wall, which seals behind him. Upstairs, Al notices a hazy image of the construction worker in her mirror before Glen bursts into her bedroom. Al throws a stereo at the construction worker and he disintegrates into dozens of little demons. Al holds the bedroom door shut while Glen races downstairs to find their father's gun. A demonic version of Terry appears, biting his hand before Al stabs Terry in the eye. Al and Glen hide in a closet, but the construction worker breaks through an interior wall and drags Al away. Glen realizes that Terry and Al represent the two human sacrifices that would fully open the gate. He also realizes that the rocket he had given Al for her birthday, a symbol of love, light and purity, may stop the rise of the Old Gods. He makes his way upstairs as the floor collapses, revealing a chasm beneath the house. Glen attempts to launch the rocket, but his matches keep blowing out. The wind sucks Glen onto the foyer, where a giant serpentine demon emerges. The demon pats Glen on the head and touches his hand before returning to the hole. Glen discovers the demon's touch has placed an eye in the palm of his hand. He stabs the eye, then struggles to descend the staircase, at which point the demon re-emerges. Glen uses a battery-powered launcher to fire his rocket into the demon, causing it to explode. Angus emerges from the front closet, seemingly restored to life. He is followed by Terry and Al, also unhurt. The kids worry about how to explain the wreckage of the house to their parents. 

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Tibby, the wife of Samuel Sweetland (Jameson Thomas) dies, and shortly afterwards his daughter marries and leaves home, leaving him on his own with his two servants. His wife had told him that he should remarry after her death, so he pursues some local spinsters who were at his daughter's wedding after he and his housekeeper Minta (Lillian Hall-Davis) make out a list of possibilities. First is Widow Louisa Windeatt, but Sweetland is shocked and mad when she rejects his advances and says she is too independent for him. Next, he attempts to court Thirza Tapper, a nervous wreck who almost collapses when Sweetland proposes to her. She, too, rejects him because she says she has no need for a man, and he is furious yet again. He wanders outside as other guests arrive for her party. His grumpy servant Ash is helping at the party, wearing an ill-fitting coat and trying to keep his trousers up while doing his work at the party. While the others are outside listening to some singers, Sweetland proposes to Mary Hearn, but she rejects him as too old, and then becomes hysterical when he angrily tells her that she too is "full blown and a bit over." Later Sweetland tells Minta that he is not going to finish the list of women because he is so dejected. He leaves the room and Ash returns and tells Minta what an embarrassment to men that Sweetland is by going around and practically begging any woman to be his wife. Sweetland overhears this and orders Ash to saddle his horse because he is going to try number four on the list, Mercy Bassett, a barmaid at a local inn. After he leaves, it is revealed that Minta is in love with him. Bassett rejects him too and he comes home dejectedly. Meanwhile postmistress Hearn and Tapper compare notes and Hearn decides she should marry him after all and she goes to his house with Tapper. Having run through the women who have turned him down, Samuel sees Minta for the first time as more than a housekeeper and decides that she is the woman for him, if she'll have him. He tells her he has got used to being rejected and will not be angry if she rejects him, too. She accepts him and he tells her to put on the dress Tibby gave her. As she goes to the room, Hearn and Tapper arrive. Hearn says she is now willing to be his wife. Samuel says all should drink a toast to his wife to be and Hearn is sure it is her, until Minta comes down the stairs in an attractive dress. Hearn lapses into hysterics again as Sweetland reveals that Minta will be his bride. 

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In the year 2078, the planet Sirius 6B, once a thriving mining hub, has been reduced to a toxic wasteland by a war between the mining company, known as the New Economic Bloc (NEB), and "The Alliance," a group of former mining and science personnel. After miners discovered that their extraction of ore released toxic gases, they went on strike, and the mining company hired mercenaries as strike breakers. Five years into the war, Alliance scientists created and deployed Autonomous Mobile Swords (AMS) — artificially intelligent self-replicating machines that hunt down and kill NEB soldiers on their own. They are nicknamed "screamers" because of a high- pitched noise they emit as they attack. Screamers track targets by their heartbeats, so Alliance soldiers wear "tabs" which broadcast a signal canceling out the wearer's heartbeat and rendering them "invisible" to the machines. A fragile stalemate is in effect between the two exhausted, poorly supplied, and undermanned armies. The Alliance recovers a message from a dead NEB soldier, killed by screamers as he approached the Alliance compound, guaranteeing safe passage through NEB territory to discuss a truce. When Alliance commanding officer Joe Hendricksson (Weller) reports this development to his Earth-based superiors, he is told that peace negotiations are already underway on Earth; but Private "Ace" Jefferson (Andrew Lauer), newly arrived from Earth, says that is untrue. Hendricksson is not surprised; he has long suspected that both sides have simply written off Sirius 6B and abandoned their armies. Hendricksson decides that the only realistic chance of survival for himself and his soldiers is to accept the NEB truce offer. He sets out for a meeting with the NEB commander, accompanied by Jefferson. While traveling through a destroyed city they come upon a war orphan, a young boy named David (Michael Caloz), clutching a teddy bear. Unwilling to abandon a defenseless civilian, they bring the boy along. The following night they are attacked by a reptilian screamer that they have never before encountered. Hendricksson is alarmed that their Alliance tabs did not protect them. As the group nears the NEB compound, two enemy soldiers, Becker (Dupuis) and Ross (Charles Powell), open fire on David, whose chest explodes in a shower of gears, bolts, and wires. They explain to the astonished Alliance men that David was a new "type 3" screamer impersonating a human. Most of the NEB contingent has been wiped out by another "David" screamer that a patrol unwittingly brought into the base; Becker, Ross, and a black marketeer named Jessica (Rubin) are the only survivors. The group heads to the NEB command center but finds only an empty building and large pools of blood. Locating the mainframe computer, Hendricksson learns that the NEB truce offer was just as false as the Alliance message from Earth. The group retreats to the NEB bunker, pursued by "Davids". The discovery that the screamers have "evolved" new versions on their own that are indistinguishable from humans, and immune to Alliance tabs, leads to paranoia and distrust. Becker becomes convinced that Ross is a screamer and kills him, only to discover that he was human. The three survivors retreat to the Alliance base, only to find that the "Davids" have gained entrance to that compound as well, with equally devastating results. As dozens of "Davids" pour out of the bunker's entrance, Hendricksson fires a micro-nuclear missile into the bunker. Jefferson rushes to the aid of Becker, who was apparently injured in the blast, but Becker's cries of distress are a ruse; he is a "type 2" screamer, and he kills Jefferson. After Hendricksson destroys Becker, only he and Jessica remain. Now paranoid, Hendricksson worries that Jessica could be a screamer as well. He slashes her hand, and is relieved to see blood dripping from the wound. They locate an emergency escape shuttle and begin prepping it for launch, only for Becker (who was repaired and has taken Joe's friend's face) to attack Joe. In the struggle, Joe manages to finally kill Becker by throwing into a plasma laser that's part of the shield grid for the escape shuttle. With the shuttle now prepped, they discover it can carry only one person. Hendricksson offers the shuttle to Jessica; but a second "Jessica" arrives, confirming that she is a screamer after all, and even more human- like. Hendricksson resigns himself to death; but to his surprise, Jessica shields him, then sacrifices herself in battle with her lookalike. Joe then kills the lookalike with the shuttle's ignition test. With her last breath, Jessica confesses her love for Hendricksson. Hendricksson departs for Earth on the escape shuttle with a single souvenir, the teddy bear carried by the original "David". As the screen fades to black, the bear slowly begins to move on its own. 

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In 1954 a French unit on patrol during the First Indochina War, is ambushed by Viet Minh forces. Viet Minh commander Nguyen Huu An orders his soldiers to "kill all they send, and they will stop coming". Eleven years later, the United States is fighting the Vietnam War. U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel Hal Moore is chosen to train and lead a battalion. After arriving in Vietnam, he learns that an American base has been attacked, and is ordered to take his 400 men after the enemy and eliminate the North Vietnamese attackers, despite the fact that intelligence has no idea of the number of enemy troops. Moore leads a newly created air cavalry unit into the Ia Drang Valley. After landing, the soldiers capture a North Vietnamese soldier and learn from him that the location they were sent to is actually the base camp for a veteran North Vietnamese army division of 4,000 men. Upon arrival in the area with a platoon of soldiers, 2nd Lt. Henry Herrick spots an enemy scout and runs after him, ordering his reluctant soldiers to follow. The scout lures them into an ambush, resulting in several men being killed, including Herrick and his subordinates. The surviving platoon members are surrounded and cut off from the rest of the battalion. Sgt. Savage assumes command, calls in artillery, and uses the cover of night to keep the Vietnamese from overrunning their defensive position. Meanwhile, with helicopters constantly dropping off units, Moore manages to secure weak points before the North Vietnamese can take advantage of them. Despite being trapped and desperately outnumbered, the main U.S. force manages to hold off the North Vietnamese with artillery, mortars, and helicopter airlifts of supplies and reinforcements. Eventually, Nguyen Huu An, the commander of the North Vietnamese division, orders a large-scale attack on the American position. At the point of being overrun by the enemy, Moore orders 1st Lt. Charlie Hastings, his Forward Air Controller, to call in "Broken Arrow" (a call for all available combat aircraft to assist and attack enemy positions, even those close to the U.S. troops' position, because a position is being overrun and can no longer be defended). The aircraft attack with bombs, napalm, and machine guns, killing many PAVN and Viet Cong troops; but a friendly fire incident also results in American deaths. The North Vietnamese attack is repelled, and the surviving soldiers of Herrick's cut-off platoon, including Savage, are rescued. Meanwhile, back in the United States, Julia Moore has become the leader of the American wives living on the base. When the Army begins to use yellow cab drivers to deliver telegrams notifying the next of kin of soldiers' deaths in combat, Julia personally assumes that emotional responsibility instead. Moore's troops regroup and secure the area. Nguyen Huu An plans a final assault on the Americans and sends most of his troops to carry out the attack, but Moore and his men overrun them and approach the enemy command center. Before the base camp guards can open fire, Major Bruce "Snake" Crandall and others helicopter gunships attack, destroying the remnant of the enemy force. With no more troops to call on, Huu An quickly orders the headquarters evacuated. Having achieved his objective, Moore returns to the helicopter landing zone to be picked up. Only after everyone (including the dead and wounded) is removed from the battlefield does he fly out of the valley. Some time later, Nguyen Huu An and his men arrive on the battlefield to collect their dead. He claims that the Americans will "think this was their victory. So this will become an American war." At the end of the film, it is revealed that the landing zone immediately reverted to North Vietnamese hands after the American troops were airlifted out. Hal Moore continued the battle in a different landing zone, and after nearly a year he returns home safely to Julia and his family. His superiors congratulate him for killing over 1,800 North Vietnamese Army and Viet Cong soldiers. An older Moore visits the Vietnam War memorial and looks at the names of the soldiers who fell at Ia Drang. 

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The story revolves around a struggle to determine which of Satan's three sons will succeed their father as ruler of Hell. Adrian is the most devious, Cassius is the cruelest, and Nicky is their father's favorite. Adrian and Cassius claim that Nicky's mother is a goat and torment him by controlling his body with their minds. Nicky has had a speech impediment and a disfigured jaw since Cassius hit him in the face with a shovel. Having been the Prince of Darkness for ten thousand years, the Devil assembles his sons to decide which of them will succeed him; he tells them that they are not ready yet, having decided to keep his throne. Angered by this decision, Adrian and Cassius go to Earth to create a new Hell by possessing religious and political leaders in New York City. As they leave, they freeze the entrance to Hell, preventing more souls from entering and causing Satan's body to begin decomposing. To stop Adrian and Cassius, Satan sends Nicky to Earth with a silver flask that traps whoever drinks from it inside. At first, Nicky has trouble staying alive on Earth. He is killed several times, landing in Hell and returning to New York each time. While learning how to eat and sleep, he meets a talking bulldog named Mr. Beefy, rents an apartment with an actor named Todd, and falls in love with a design student named Valerie. Nicky's first encounter with his brothers occurs when Adrian sees him with Valerie, takes mental control of his body, and makes him scare her away. Then Nicky sees Cassius on television, possessing the referee of a Globetrotters game. When he goes to the court and tricks Cassius into the flask, Satanist metalheads John and Peter are so thrilled with his performance that they become his devoted fans. That evening, Nicky tries to apologize to Valerie. The meeting goes badly at first, but she accepts him after he explains who he is and why he is on Earth. The next day, Adrian possesses the Chief of the NYPD and accuses Nicky of mass murder. Not knowing what to do, Nicky has Todd kill him so he can go back to Hell and ask his father for advice, but his father has trouble hearing because his ears have fallen off, and his assistants are in a panic because the midnight deadline to capture Adrian and Cassius is only hours away. Back on Earth again, Nicky and his friends devise a plan to capture Adrian in a subway station, but Adrian discovers their trick. In the ensuing fight, Adrian grabs Valerie and dives onto the track as a train approaches, but Nicky throws her out of the way, leaving himself and Adrian to be killed by the train. Arriving in Hell just minutes before midnight, Adrian begins the process of taking over Hell by pushing what remains of his father aside and sitting on the throne, rising to Central Park, and starting a riotous party. Meanwhile, Nicky wakes up in Heaven as a reward for sacrificing himself and meets his mother Holly, an angel who tells him that he can defeat Adrian with the Inner Light that he inherited from her. After she gives him a mysterious orb, he goes to Central Park. Adrian appears to win a battle by locking Nicky in the flask and turning himself into a bat, but Nicky escapes from the flask. When he shatters the orb, Ozzy Osbourne appears, bites Adrian's head off, and spits it into the flask. With his brothers captured, Nicky is ready to save his father. After he sins to make sure he goes to Hell, he and Valerie express their love for each other and she kills him. In Hell, Satan regains his body and recommends that Nicky go back to Earth. The film ends a year later, when Nicky and Valerie live in New York with their infant son. 

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The film opens at night, as a woman urinates on the grass by the side of the road. She pulls up her underwear, gets into a car driven by her husband, and they drive away. The couple lose their way in the dark and subsequently run off the road. The next day their corpses are discovered, the man inside the vehicle, the woman thrown from it and her body cut in two.Kerekes (1998), p. 35-50 The film centers on Rob Schmadtke, the tragic hero, who works for "Joe's Cleaning Agency", a company that removes bodies from public areas and cleans up after traffic accidents. Their emblem is the Totenkopf symbol (skull and crossbones variant) within a pentagram.Kerekes (1998), p. 35-50Blake (2004), p. 195 This job leaves him the opportunity to pursue his full-time hobby: necrophilia. He returns home from his job to his apartment and girlfriend Betty. He plays with his assortment of preserved human remains and watches television while Betty takes a bath in blood-laden water. Their apartment is decorated with centerfolds featuring models, pictures of famed killers, and jars containing human parts, which are preserved in formaldehyde.Kerekes (1998), p. 35-50 Rob watches a televised interview of a psychiatrist who speaks on the topic of arachnophobia and ways to overcome phobias. Rob then enters a daydream of a young rabbit being caught on a farm and graphically slaughtered. It is implied that these are memories of his father killing "a beloved childhood pet". A scene of an autopsy on a human cadaver follows.Kerekes (1998), p. 35-50 Next, a man drinking beer and shooting at birds with his rifle accidentally kills a nearby gardener, then discards the corpse.Kerekes (1998), p. 35-50Blake (2004), p. 195 Rob returns to work and discovers his new obsession, the corpse of the unnamed gardener, which has been found rotting in a pond.Kerekes (1998), p. 35-50 During the removal process, Rob absconds with it. He excitedly returns home with this gift for his waiting wife. They immediately cut a steel pipe and put a condom over it so Betty will have a phallus to straddle during their ménage à trois. This is immediately followed by a scene of meat being fried. Betty and Rob dine and converse while watching their new "toy" hang on the wall. Plates collect the fluids that drip out of the body. When Rob goes to work the next day, he is confronted by his co-workers, who are tired of his habitual tardiness and the stinking suit festering in his locker. His foreman Bruno (Harald Lundt), who never liked him, bullies him as they climb the stairs to see the boss. Rob is fired on the spot.Kerekes (1998), p. 35-50 At the apartment, Betty reads a love story to the corpse. She asks the corpse if it could feel the love in the story and begins to straddle the face of the corpse. When Rob returns, he informs Betty of his termination and she berates him for his failure as well as the fact that he did not stand up for himself. Betty soon leaves and takes the corpse with her. In a violent outburst, he kills their cat and bathes with its blood and entrails in the tub while the animal's body hangs over the tub. He then leaves to go to see a horror film. After being bullied by a fellow movie-goer, Rob leaves to go back to his apartment, visibly despondent.Kerekes (1998), p. 35-50 Rob attempts suicide with pills and whiskey. He begins to drift into a dream in which he emerges from a garbage bag in a partially decayed state. He is soon greeted by a woman in white who gives him a corpse's head and they begin to dance, tossing the head and entrails back and forth. Once he wakes up, he leaves his apartment and hires a prostitute. They go to a cemetery, where he hopes the environment will help satisfy his libido, but he fails to perform sexually. When the prostitute mocks him, he strangles her and then has sex with her corpse.Kerekes (1998), p. 35-50 He is startled as he awakes beside her with an old gardener standing over them. Rob grabs the man's shovel, chops his head off, and runs away.Kerekes (1998), p. 35-50 The film closes with Rob's grisly suicide, in which he stabs himself while ejaculating. This scene is filled with flashbacks to the rabbit slaughter seen earlier in the film, but in reverse. In the final scene, a woman starts digging up Rob's grave. Only her foot is seen, in stockings and high heels.Kerekes (1998), p. 35-50 

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Aliens from the planet Zoran are sent to Earth to fight against professional wrestlers from the United States and the Soviet Union, but prove to actually be man-eaters who devour their opponents upon defeating them. 

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Heidi, a somewhat isolated, sexually promiscuous teenager living in the suburbs of Canberra, flees her home after her mother, Nicole, finds Heidi kissing Nicole's boyfriend. Isolated and alone, she initially travels to Snowy River with the promise of a job offer, however after phoning the person who informed her of the job prospect, she is rebuffed as the person explains they do not remember her. Heidi's attractive appearance and vulnerability lead her into various situations and escapades in the small town. She meets a stranger at a bar and has sex with him. In the morning, he informs her of his plans to travel to Sydney and Heidi asks if she can accompany him. His friend informs her that he already has a girlfriend and the idea of Heidi travelling with him is dismissed as a result of this. She strikes up a friendship with Irene, an older woman who runs a motel in the town. Irene, realising Heidi has very little life experience and no permanent roots in the town, offers her a flatrent at the back of the motel. In order to pay the rent, Heidi must find a job, and after an unsuccessful attempt to work at a ski hire shop, she is hired at a Petrol station. One of Heidi's co- workers is Bianca and the two become friends after Bianca offers her a lift home one evening. While in town, Heidi eventually meets Joe, an equally confused young man who is having trouble with his sexuality. Joe is the son of a wealthy local farmer who finds comfort in her presence. However, Joe's insecurities towards his sexual orientation lead to a turbulent relationship between the two. Staying with Joe's parents is Richard, a gay man. Although the two share passion, Joe and Heidi's dysfunctional personalities sometimes lead to a disconnect between one another. One night, Joe takes Heidi to a Chinese restaurant, and she asks Joe if he loves her. When he refuses to answer, she swallows a small bowl of chilli. He drags her to the bathroom to expel the chilli and takes her back to the motel. While trying to express and reciprocate feelings towards Heidi, Joe kisses Richard, leading to further problems for the newly acquainted couple. The following morning, Joe's cold and distant father fails to comfort Joe, who is both drunk and emotionally distressed. Eventually, he goes to visit Heidi, who has brought home two men from a club she visited and proceeded to have sex with them when they are interrupted by Joe. Heidi tells him that he shouldn't leave without calling her and says that her having sex with the men is the result of his actions. Joe punches one of the men after they make fun of him and leaves Heidi, much to her despair. The next morning, Irene tells Heidi that after the scene she made the night before, she is no longer welcome to stay in the rental apartment. Heidi breaks down and comes clean about her past with her mother, which Irene sees an act of desperation and comforts her in her own home. There, she asks Heidi to call her mother and make amends. The film ends as Heidi's mother comes to pick her up, as she reunites with Joe. The two smile at each other before she gets into the car and returns to an uncertain future in Canberra. 

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Captain Benjamin Sisko (Avery Brooks), conflicted over events of the last two weeks, recounts his experiences in a personal log entry, the details of which are revealed in flashbacks. The losses suffered by the Federation in the war with the Dominion are taking their toll, with Sisko noting that whenever a casualty list is posted at least one of his officers spots the name of a friend or loved one. A major advantage the Dominion has is their non-aggression pact with the Romulans, who are allowing the Dominion free passage through their territory. Sisko decides that in order for the Federation and its allies to win the war, he must bring the Romulans in on their side no matter what. Sisko enlists the help of former Cardassian spy Elim Garak (Andrew Robinson) to obtain intelligence from Cardassia, assuming the Dominion must be considering a conquest of Romulus eventually, but all of Garak's contacts end up dead shortly after communicating with him. Garak instead suggests they forge a recording of Dominion leaders discussing a surprise attack. Hesitant, but driven forward by the Dominion's recent conquest of Betazed, Sisko obtains permission from Starfleet to proceed. On Garak's request, Sisko secures the release of a forger named Grathon Tolar (Howard Shangraw) from a Klingon prison. Then, in order to obtain an authentic Cardassian secure data rod, he is forced to trade a large quantity of bio- mimetic gel, a rare, dangerous, and highly regulated material. Dr. Bashir (Alexander Siddig) strongly objects, and relents only when Sisko orders him unequivocally; providing the doctor with the orders in writing, the doctor still vows to lodge a formal complaint. Matters are complicated when Tolar stabs Quark (Armin Shimerman) in an altercation while drunk. To keep Tolar out of trouble, he bribes Quark and convinces Odo (René Auberjonois) to drop the matter. At this point, Sisko recognizes the legal and ethical compromises he is making but presses on knowing it is for the greater good. Tolar creates a holographic record of a Dominion meeting between Damar (Casey Biggs) and Weyoun (Jeffrey Combs) discussing plans involving the invasion of the Romulan Empire. Meanwhile, on Garak's advice, Sisko invites Vreenak (Stephen McHattie), an influential Romulan senator, to Deep Space Nine in secret. Sisko shows Vreenak the recording and gives him the data rod, but the senator discovers the forgery and departs, furious and vowing to expose the deception. As Sisko faces the possibility that his actions may actually force the Romulans to join with the Dominion once Vreenak returns to the Empire, he learns that Vreenak's ship was destroyed en route. Sisko angrily confronts Garak, who admits he planted a bomb on Vreenak's ship in case the forgery was not accepted. Garak also admits he killed Tolar in order to keep his work secret. Garak maintains that when the Romulans scan the wreckage and find the rod, any imperfections will be attributed to damage from the explosion, and thus the recording will implicate the Dominion as planned. Garak asserts that Sisko included him in the plan to do the things that Sisko was unwilling to do. Garak also states that Sisko can ease his conscience with the knowledge that the Alpha Quadrant may have been saved at the cost of the life of one Romulan senator, one criminal and the self-respect of one Starfleet officer, which he calls a bargain. Subsequently, the Romulans join with the Federation and declare war against the Dominion, quickly striking at nearby Dominion outposts. At the end of his log entry, Sisko admits that Garak was right about a guilty conscience being a small price to pay, and states, somewhat uncertainly, that he can live with his decision for the good of the Alpha Quadrant. He then orders the computer to delete the entire personal log. 

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In 1917, during the last months of legal prostitution in Storyville, the red-light district of New Orleans, Louisiana, Hattie is a prostitute working at an elegant brothel run by the elderly, cocaine-sniffing Madame Nell. Hattie has given birth to a baby boy and has a 12-year-old daughter, Violet, who lives in the house. When photographer Ernest J. Bellocq comes with his camera, Hattie and Violet are the only people awake. He asks to be allowed to take photographs of the women. Madame Nell agrees only after he offers to pay. Bellocq becomes a fixture in the brothel, photographing the prostitutes, mostly Hattie. His activities fascinate Violet, though she believes he is falling in love with her mother, which makes her jealous. Violet is a restless child, frustrated by the long, precise process Bellocq must go through to pose and take pictures. Nell decides that Violet is old enough for her virginity to be auctioned off. After a bidding war among regulars, Violet is bought by an apparently quiet customer. This depiction of child abuse experience is unpleasant. Hattie, meanwhile, aspires to escape prostitution. She marries a customer and leaves for St. Louis without her daughter, whom her husband believes to be her sister. Hattie promises to return for Violet, once she's settled and has broken the news to the new spouse. Violet runs away from the brothel after being punished for some hijinks. She appears on Bellocq's doorstep and asks him if he will sleep with her and take care of her. He initially says no, but then he takes her in and commences having a sexual relationship with the child. In many ways, their relationship resembles one between a parent and child, with Bellocq standing in for Violet's absent mother. Bellocq even buys Violet a doll, telling her that "every child should have a doll". Bellocq is entranced by Violet's beauty, youth, and photogenic face. She is frustrated by Bellocq's devotion to his photography and lack of care for her as a dependent, as much as he is frustrated by the reality that she is a child. Violet eventually returns to Nell's after quarreling with Bellocq, but social reform groups are forcing the brothels of Storyville to close. Bellocq arrives to wed Violet, ostensibly to protect her from the larger world. Two weeks after the wedding, Hattie and her husband arrive from St. Louis to collect Violet, claiming that her marriage is illegal without their consent. Bellocq does not want to let Violet go. Violet asks if he will go with her and her family. Upon hearing that she does in fact want to go with them, he lets her leave without him, realizing that schooling and a more conventional life will benefit her greatly. 

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The bulk of Monstrous Regiment takes place in the small, bellicose country of Borogravia, a highly conservative nation, whose people live according to the increasingly strange (and harmful) decrees of its favored deity, Nuggan. The main feature of his religion is the Abominations; a long, often-updated list of banned things. To put this in perspective, these things include garlic, cats, the smell of beets, people with ginger hair, shirts with six buttons, anyone shorter than three feet (including children and babies), sneezing, rocks, ears, jigsaw puzzles, chocolate (which was once Borogravia's staple export, plunging the country into increasing poverty), and the colour blue. The list of "Abominations Unto Nuggan" often causes conflicts with Borogravia's neighbours, and the uncertain whereabouts of Nuggan leads the inhabitants of Borogravia to deify their Duchess, to whom they pray instead. This slowly causes problems as, on the Discworld, belief grants power. Borogravia is in the midst of a war against an alliance of neighbouring countries, caused by a border dispute with the country of Zlobenia. Rumour is that the war is going poorly for Borogravia, though the country's leadership (and "everyone") denies it. Polly Perks's brother Paul is missing in action after fighting in the Borogravian army. Paul is naive and believes what he is told regardless of the credibility or political leanings of the source, and even though Polly is more qualified to take over the family business (a famous pub known as "The Duchess"), according to Nugganitic law, women cannot own property, so if Paul does not return the pub will be lost to their drunken cousin when their father dies. Partly to ensure her own future but mainly to ascertain whether Paul is alive, Polly sets off to join the army in order to find him. Women joining the army are regarded as an Abomination Unto Nuggan, so Polly decides to dress up as a man (another Abomination) and enlists as Private Oliver Perks (taking her name from the folk song Sweet Polly Oliver) a song that her father sang to her when she was a young girl. While signing up, Polly encounters the repulsively patriotic Corporal Strappi, and the corpulent Sergeant Jackrum. Despite her apprehensions regarding Strappi, she kisses the Duchess - that is, she kisses a painting of said noble - and by doing so, joins up. Due to the shortage of troops, her fellow soldiers include a vampire named Maladict, a Troll named Carborundum, and an Igor named Igor. They also include "Tonker" Halter, "Shufti" Manickle, "Wazzer" Goom, and "Lofty" Tewt. That night, Polly encounters an unknown supporter whilst answering a call of nature, who assures her that although they know that Polly is a girl, they won't give her away. They also give her some hints on how not to be discovered. Over the next few days, Polly makes a startling discovery: Lofty is also a girl. Since Lofty and Tonker are always together, Polly assumes that Lofty joined the army to follow her man, just like in "Sweet Polly Oliver". Later, she finds out that Shufti is another girl, and a pregnant one. She also joined the army to find her man; in this case, the father of her child, who she'd only known for a few days, and is known as Johnny. Gradually, Polly discovers not only that everyone in her regiment, is female, but also receives confirmation of Borogravia's bleak situation. Most of her country's forces are captured or on the run, and food supplies are limited. This point is driven home when Igor (actually Igorina) demonstrates her surgery talents and saves several lives among a group of badly injured fleeing soldiers. The regiment, under the leadership of their inexperienced commanding officer Lieutenant Blouse, makes its way toward the Keep where the enemy is based. Meanwhile, thanks to a chance encounter where the regiment unknowingly subdue and humiliate an elite enemy detachment, including Zlobenia's Prince Heinrich, their exploits become known to the outside world through William de Worde and his newspaper. Their progress particularly piques the interest of Commander Vimes, who is stationed with the alliance at the Keep. Vimes has his officers keep track of the regiment, occasionally secretly providing aid. Polly and most of the regiment are able to infiltrate the Keep, disguising themselves as washerwomen, and once inside plot to release the captured Borogravian troops. They manage to do so, and Borogravia is able to retake much of the Keep, but when Polly admits they are women, their own forces remove them from the conflict and they are brought in front of a council of senior officers, where their fate will be decided. With the council about to discharge them and force them to return home, Jackrum barges in and intervenes, revealing that several of the military's top officers are actually women as well. But in the midst of this revelation, the Duchess, now raised to the level of a small deity by Borogravia's belief, takes brief possession of Wazzer, her most passionate believer. The Duchess urges all of the generals to quit the war and return home, to repair their country, returning their kiss of service, and ending their obligation to her. In a private moment with Jackrum, Polly reveals to her Sergeant that she now knows him to (physically) be a woman and persuades Jackrum to go to the home of his grown son William and reveal himself as William's long-lost father. The regiment is sent to the enemy and successfully negotiates a truce, and military rules are changed so that women are allowed to serve openly and Maladict reveals himself as really being Maladicta. Polly finds her brother alive and well and they return home to The Duchess with Shufti, who joins Polly in her refusal to be subjugated on the basis of her gender and marital status. The other members of the regiment go on to lives that they would not have been able to consider before their emancipation, such as Igorina opening a gynaecology clinic on the basis that many women would prefer to see a female practitioner. Sometime later, despite the peace they had desperately fought for, conflict breaks out again. Polly, having received correspondence from Sgt Jackrum, leaves the tavern to seek new ways to fight a war using the influence she gained and finds herself in the role of commander of boy-impersonating females who are marching off to war. 

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The novel is told from the point of view of Roth as a child growing up in Newark, New Jersey, as the younger son of Herman and Bess Roth. It begins with aviation hero Charles Lindbergh, who is already criticized for his praise of Hitler's government, joining the America First Party. As the party's spokesman, he speaks against US intervention in World War II and openly criticizes the "Jewish race" for trying to force US involvement. After making a surprise appearance on the last night of the 1940 Republican National Convention, he is nominated as the Republican Party's candidate for president. Although criticized from the left and feared by most Jewish Americans, Lindbergh musters a strong tide of popular support from the South and the Midwest and is endorsed by Conservative Rabbi Lionel Bengelsdorf of Newark. Lindbergh wins the 1940 election over incumbent President Franklin Roosevelt in a landslide under the slogan "Vote for Lindbergh, or vote for war." Montana Senator Burton K. Wheeler is Lindbergh's vice president, and Lindbergh nominates Henry Ford as Secretary of the Interior. With Lindbergh now in the White House, the Roth family begins increasingly to feel like outsiders in American society. Lindbergh's first act is to sign a treaty with Nazi Germany and Hitler that promises that the United States will not interfere with German expansion in Europe, known as the "Iceland Understanding," after where it is signed, and another with Imperial Japan that promises noninterference with Japanese expansion in Asia, known as the "Hawaii Understanding." The new presidency begins to take a toll on Philip's family. Philip's cousin Alvin joins the Canadian Army to fight in Europe. He loses his leg in combat and comes home with his ideals destroyed. He leaves the family and becomes a racketeer in Philadelphia. A new government program, the Office of American Absorption (OAA), begins to take Jewish boys to spend a period of time living with exchange families in the South and Midwest to "Americanize" them. Philip's older brother Sandy is one of the boys selected, and after spending time on a farm in Kentucky under the OAA's "Just Folks" scheme, he comes home showing contempt for his family, calling them "ghetto Jews." Philip's aunt, Evelyn Finkel, who is his mother's older sister, marries Rabbi Bengelsdorf and becomes a frequent guest of the Lindbergh White House and is even invited to a dinner party for German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop. That causes further strain in the family. A new version of the Homestead Act of 1862, called Homestead 42, is instituted to relocate entire Jewish families to the Western and Southern United States. Many of Philip's Newark neighbors move to Canada. Philip's shy and innocent school friend, Seldon Wishnow, an only child, is moved to tiny Danville, Kentucky, with his widowed mother, Selma. In protest against the new act, the radio personality Walter Winchell openly criticizes the Lindbergh administration on his nationwide Sunday night broadcast from New York and is fired by his sponsor. Winchell then decides to run for president in 1944 and begins a speaking tour. His candidacy causes anger and anti-Semitic rioting in the South and the Midwest, and mobs begin targeting him. While addressing an open-air political rally in Louisville, Kentucky, on October 5, 1942, Winchell is shot to death. Winchell's funeral in New York City is presided over by Mayor Fiorello La Guardia, who praises Winchell for his opposition to fascism and pointedly criticizes Lindbergh for his silence over the riots and Winchell's assassination. As he is returning from delivering a speech in Louisville on October 7, 1942, Lindbergh's plane goes missing. Ground searches turn up no results, and Vice President Wheeler assumes command. The German State Radio discloses "evidence" that Lindbergh's disappearance and the kidnapping of his son were part of a Jewish conspiracy to take control of the US government. That announcement causes further anti-Semitic rioting. Wheeler and Ford, acting on that evidence, begin arresting prominent Jewish citizens, including Henry Morgenthau Jr., Herbert Lehman, and Bernard Baruch as well as Mayor La Guardia and Rabbi Bengelsdorf. Seldon calls the Roths when his mother does not come home from work. They later discover that Seldon's mother was killed by Ku Klux Klan members who beat and robbed her before setting fire to her car with her in it. The Roths eventually call Sandy's exchange family in Kentucky and have them keep Seldon safe until Philip's father and brother drive there and bring him back to Newark. Months later, Seldon is taken in by his mother's sister. The rioting stops when First Lady Anne Morrow Lindbergh makes a statement that asks for the country to stop the violence and move forward. With the body searches for President Lindbergh called off, former President Roosevelt runs as an emergency presidential candidate in November 1942 and is re-elected. Months later, the Japanese attack Pearl Harbor, and the US enters the war. As an epilogue, Philip's aunt, Evelyn, confides a theory of Lindbergh's disappearance, the source for which was First Lady Lindbergh, who disclosed the details to Evelyn's husband, Rabbi Bengelsdorf, shortly before the First lady had been forcibly removed from the White House and held prisoner in the psychiatric ward at Walter Reed Army Hospital. According to Evelyn, after the Lindberghs' son, Charles, was kidnapped in 1932, his murder was faked, and he was then raised in Germany by the Nazis as a Hitler Youth member. The Nazis' price for the boy's life was Lindbergh's full co-operation with a Nazi-organized presidential campaign by which they hoped to bring the Final Solution to the US. When Lindbergh informed them that the US would never permit such a thing, he was kidnapped, and the Jewish conspiracy theory was put forward hoping to turn the US further against its Jewish population. Philip admits that Evelyn's theory is the most far-fetched and "unbelievable" but "not necessarily the least convincing" explanation for Lindbergh's disappearance. 

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Eleven-year-old Napoleon lives with his grandfather. He and his grandfather adopt a lion named Major when by chance they meet an old clown who cannot take him back to Europe. The old lion has bad teeth and only drinks milk so they put Major in the chicken cage to look after him. When Napoleon's grandfather dies of old age, Napoleon asks a young grad student named Danny to help bury his grandfather. Uncertain about his future Napoleon runs off with the lion, a pet rooster, and his friend Samantha to try to find Danny, now a goat herder who lives in the mountains, and so Napoleon can avoid being sent to an orphanage. Along their way, the two children encounter many dangers. Napoleon nearly falls off a cliff, but Major manages to pull him up with a rope. They have to cross a river which Major does not like, since most cats are afraid of water. A cougar attacks Napoleon's rooster, but Major easily defeats the much smaller cat and chases it up a tree. While Napoleon is out looking for wood he comes across an angry black bear that chases him back to where Samantha is resting with Major. At first, Major is too tired and wants to sleep while Samantha desperately tries to wake him. But as soon as the lion hears the roar of the bear, he stands up to challenge his opponent and protect the children. As the bear is much closer in size to Major than the cougar was, the two beasts fight hard but Major eventually gains the upper hand and the bear runs away. Eventually the children find Danny's cabin and he takes them in with the hope of convincing Napoleon that orphanages really aren't that bad. Danny leaves the kids with a man named Mark Pierson and attempts to find Samantha's family to notify them, but he is arrested and accused of kidnapping the children. While at the police station, Danny notices a photo of Mark, who happens to be a dangerous psychopath and escapes to rescue them. He steals a motorcycle and the police chase him all the way back to his cabin where they find and arrest the wanted man. When things are back to normal, Napoleon takes Major and tries to run away again to live with the Indians but Danny catches up. Danny explains that the Indians don't really live out in the wild anymore and that Napoleon should give foster care a try with a promise that Major could stay in the mountains and live with him. Napoleon agrees and they go back to Danny's cabin. 

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The film revolves around college football and a game between the fictional Darwin and Huxley Colleges. Many of the jokes about the amateur status of collegiate football players and how eligibility rules are stretched by collegiate athletic departments remain remarkably current.Horse Feathers at Filmsite.org. Groucho plays Quincy Adams Wagstaff, the new president of Huxley College, and Zeppo is his son Frank, a student at the school who convinces his father to recruit professional football players to help Huxley's terrible football team. There are also many references to Prohibition. Baravelli (Chico) is an "iceman", who delivers ice and bootleg liquor from a local speakeasy. Pinky (Harpo) is also an "iceman", and a part- time dogcatcher. Through a series of misunderstandings, Baravelli and Pinky are accidentally recruited to play for Huxley instead of the actual professional players. This requires them to enroll as students, which creates chaos throughout the school. The climax of the film, which ESPN listed as first in its "top 11 scenes in football movie history,"The top 11 scenes in football movie history at ESPN.com. includes the four protagonists winning the football game by successfully performing a version of the hidden ball trick and then scoring the winning touchdown in a horse-drawn garbage wagon that Pinky rides like a chariot. A picture of the brothers in the "chariot" near the end of the film made the cover of Time magazine in 1932. 

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Dynamit-Harry and Vanheden have left the criminal life behind them. Together with Harry's wife they are managing a small company together AB Alltjänst (roughly General Servicing Ltd). But when Sickan's maternal grandmother suspects that Wall- Enberg is shutting down theaters like La Scala they contact Sickans brother Sven-Ingvar "Sivan" Jönsson who has a plan. They are going to steal a computer floppy disc with bank account numbers worth 60 billion kronor. 

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On Guy Fawkes Night, Mary Poppins arrives in the wake of the last fireworks display by the Banks family. The Banks children Michael, Jane, the twins, and Annabel plead with her to stay. She reluctantly agrees to do so "till the door opens". When an anxious Jane points out that the nursery door is always opening, she clarifies "the Other Door." Mrs. Banks has Mary and the children find a piano tuner, who happens to be Mary's cousin, Mr. Twigley. When Mary and the children visit, Mr. Twigley tries to unburden himself from seven wishes given to him when he was born. Besides pianos, Mr. Twigley also specializes in songbirds such as nightingales, one of which he releases when he's finished. He also provides music boxes for Mary and the Banks children to dance to. When they return home later, the drawing room piano is playing perfectly, and when the Banks children ask Mary what happened, she sharply rebukes them. Other adventures in the book include Mary telling the story of a king who was outsmarted by a cat (known as "The Cat That Looked at a King"), the park statue of Neleus that comes to life for a time during one of their outings, their visit to confectioner Miss Calico and her flying peppermint sticks, an undersea (High- Tide) party where Mary Poppins is the guest of honor, and a party between fairy tale rivals in the Crack between the Old Year and the New. When the children ask why Mary Poppins, a real person, is there, they are told that she is a fairy tale come true. The next morning, Jane and Michael find definite proof of the last night's adventure, and this time she does not deny it, simply telling them that they too may end up living happily ever after. Finally, the citizens of the town as well as many other characters from the previous two books turn out to say good-bye to Mary. The children realize they're not leaving, but Mary is, and they rush to the nursery to see her open and leave through the nursery door's reflection in the window. Later that evening, Mr. Banks sees a shooting star, and they all wish upon it. The children wish to remember Mary Poppins all their lives, and they faintly make her out in the star. They wave and she waves back to them. The narrator remarks, "Mary Poppins herself had flown away, but the gifts she had brought would remain for always." 

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A starship crew—Captain (in the original, Coordinator), Doctor, Engineer, Chemist, Physicist and Cyberneticist (robotics expert)—crash land on an alien world they call Eden. After escaping their wrecked ship they set out to explore the planet, first traveling through an unsettling wilderness and coming upon an abandoned automated factory. There they find a constant cycle of materials being produced and then destroyed and recycled. Perplexed, they return to their ship. At the crash site they find a local sentient alien has entered their vessel. They name these large creatures, with small torsos retractable into their large bodies, doublers (a translation of Lem's neologism dubelt, to mean "double-bodied"). The next day the expedition begins to come into contact with the local civilization, and their strange, wheel-like vehicles. Eventually they come into conflict with a vehicle's pilot, who is a doubler. Killing the pilot and fleeing in his vehicle, they return to the ship and prepare defenses. After an attack never comes, they assemble their jeep and half the team sets out to explore further, the other half remaining behind to repair the ship. The jeep team eventually discovers structures resembling graves and hundreds of preserved skeletons, and adjacent to it, a settlement. Two expedition members exploring the settlement become caught in a stampede of doublers, who seem totally indifferent to the presence of the alien expedition. One doubler however, comes to the jeep and refuses to return to the settlement, and is brought back to the ship. While the expedition explored the settlement, a large group of doubler vehicles had reconnoitered the crash site and then fled. After a while the crew learns that the local civilization is planning to act against them. Shortly thereafter the area around the ship is bombarded for several hours, with all hits falling into a circular ditch made earlier. It turns out they were bombarded with "micromechanical devices", from which a wall of glass begins to grow and eventually assembles into a dome, an attempt to isolate the ship. The doubler that has joined the group proves to be uncommunicative, leading some of the crew to suggest that it has some sort of mental deficiency. The crew also begins to postulate that the "naked" doublers they have seen are the victims of genocide. Choosing to explore further, the crew activates "Defender", a large tank which they have managed to repair. Blasting through the glass dome they travel far southwest, observing from a distance, for the first time, everyday doubler life. Returning to the ship in the night, the crew encounters a group of doublers being gassed to death, and act in self defense with their antimatter weapons, killing an indeterminate number of both "naked" and "soldier" doublers. When the Defender team returns to the ship, they find that most of the glass wall has repaired itself, and blast another hole. Returning to the ship until the radioactivity dies down, the expedition plans its next move. In the middle of the meeting a dressed doubler suddenly enters, and the crew makes contact, discovering the doubler to have knowledge of astronomy. The first contact however, is soon turned into a bitter victory, as the crew learns that this doubler has unwittingly exposed himself to radiation by entering the hole made by Defender. Informing the doubler of his impending death, both parties struggle to learn as much as they can. Through a developed computer translator, the crew and the doubler can speak to one another and begin to gain an understanding of the other's species. An indistinct image emerges of doublers' Orwellian information-controlled civilization that is almost self-regulating, with a special kind of system of government--one that officially does not exist and is thus impossible to destroy. The society is controlled through a fictitious advanced branch of information science Lem dubs procrustics, based on the control and stratification of information flows within the society. It is used for molding groups within a society and ultimately a society as a whole to behave as designed by secret hidden rulers. One example described in the novel is the above-mentioned settlement, kind of a "concentration camp" without any guards, designed so that the prisoners stay inside apparently of their own "free" will. Although the doublers know almost nothing of nuclear science, they once conducted a massive genetic experiment to enhance the species. This attempt failed miserably, resulting in deformed doublers who, if they survive, are often driven to the fringes of society. Much like the government, the very existence of this experiment, and the factories created for it, are denied, and anyone with the knowledge of them is eliminated. The doubler explains that the information disseminated to the higher echelons of doubler society was that humans, having been subjected to the effects of cosmic rays throughout their space journey, were mutant monsters that were being quarantined, but he had seen it as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and chose to pursue it, a choice the humans greatly empathize with. Finally the ship is repaired and the crew is ready to leave Eden. The astronomer doubler, although recovering fully from his radiation exposure, decides to stay behind, and as the starship takes off, much to the crew's sadness, the two doublers stand by the ship's exhaust, choosing to die rather than return to their oppressive society. The planet is seen from the distance once again, a beautiful violet sphere, whose beauty, they now recall, was the very reason they crashed while attempting too close a fly-by and hitting the atmosphere by mistake. It was because of its beauty that they called it, when first seeing it, Eden. 

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The novel's plot is largely concerned with the so-called Fringe War. All the intelligent species of Known Space are interested in the Ringworld. In the novel, they engage in a Cold War of sorts (actually begun in the previous novel, The Ringworld Throne) on the fringe of the Ringworld star system. Category:2004 American novels Category:2004 science fiction novels Category:American science fiction novels Category:Known Space stories Category:Novels by Larry Niven Category:Tor Books books Category:Fiction set in the 29th century 

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The play begins with detectives Berkley and Williams at a crime scene where a man, identified as George Barber, has been murdered, the top of his head cut off and his brain stolen. One of the detective is interviewing a neuroscientist (who we learn at the end of the play is named Pensfield) specializing on research of the nervous system. Pensfield has many brains in jars hooked up to life support and lights in his lab. He tells how a rat can only imagine so much and is limited by the structure of its brain. Creatures like humans that can anticipate possible futures and make contingency plans have an evolutionary advantage, according to him. In what seems a flashback, George meets Joyce, a scientist, at a bar. This time he is luckier because she does not flat out reject his advances, rather invites George to call her. Joyce is doing research on how to improve intelligence and her specialization is in rat cortexes. Williams and Berkley are in their office with a rat brain from Pensfield's lab. Williams tells Berkley about a course his wife wants him to take to increase intelligence and imagination. George is back with Joyce, this time a stockbroker. He mismatches Joyce the stockbroker with Joyce the scientist about where they were born. George also tells Joyce about a dream with the slab and block men. In this dream, there is the Guide who is Pensfield. George and Joyce, now the scientist, are at her apartment filled with the same kind of stones that were in George's dream. George convinces the workaholic Joyce to take time off from work and go to the beach with him. Williams is listening to a tape from meditation teacher Jocelyn when Berkley interrupts him. They are visited by the caretaker of George's Building. He tells them about seeing a UFO the night that George died and fears that “they” will kill him too. Later, they will find him frozen to death without a logical explanation. Joyce is looking at a picture of the beach while telling George about a demonstration that was being held outside her lab in response to one of colleague's work. Her college is keeping an ape's brain alive. George is back with stockbroker Joyce who breaks up with him because she has been seeing someone else. Williams and Berkley talk about Louise, the rat brain. William feels bad for Louise and decides to take the brain back to the scientist because he is the only one who can “help” her. George meets Joyce the scientist on a beach. She does not know George and she has a boyfriend. George tries to tell her that they were once married and lived together and it freaks her out. Joyce insists that he has her mixed up with someone else and tries to run from George. George attacks Joyce. He is then with a doctor who is Pensfield. George says when he's dreaming, he sometimes thinks he is falling asleep. Williams comes into the office and tells Berkley he has found the missing brains and Pensfield had them all along. He is arrested. Joyce Barber, George's real life wife, is met by the detectives and told that her husband's brain is alive and producing rudimentary consciousness in a very discontinuous “fluctuating dream state”. George is again with Joyce on the beach. They see a blinking light in the ocean that goes out shortly afterwards before they can figure out what it was. The light is reminiscent of the light that came on with brain activity, suggesting the real Joyce agreed to terminate George consciousness. 

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The film focuses on seven women who decide to fight the local drug cartel after the brother of Michelle Wilson, a Las Vegas pop singer, is found severely beaten. When taken to the hospital, the young man is found to have been on illegal drugs. The singer meets with April, her brother's teacher, and the two hatch a plan to destroy the local drug processing plant. They recruit four more women with special skills and connections to help them carry out their audacious goal. As they plan their first strike, they discover high-schooler Trish spying on them. The student gets relegated to phone duty, but eventually worms her way into their escapades. The "Angels" not only destroy the processing plant, but also manage to intercept one of the shipments. As a result, the women receive unwelcome attention from the local drug cartel. 

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In the 1970s, Lillian Frank is a performer at a nightclub. Lillian tries to rouse the crowd with her torch song, "Lillie's Blues", with her daughter Billie Frank accompanying her on vocals. The plot fails and Lillian is fired. Lillian feels defeated and lights a cigarette, accidentally falls asleep with it and starts a fire, causing the building to be evacuated. Due to her mother's actions, Billie is fostered. Years later, in 1983, the adult Billie is a club dancer along with her foster-care friends Louise and Roxanne. They meet Timothy Walker, who offers a contract as backup singers and dancers to the singer Sylk and the three are contracted. Later at a nightclub hosted by Julian "Dice" Black, Sylk debuts "All My Life". Dice discovers that Billie is the real singer of the song, as a means to cover up Sylk's abysmal singing ability. Impressed, he wishes to produce her but Billie raises concerns about her contract with Timothy and he eventually agrees on the provision that Dice pays him $100,000. Billie and Dice start working on songs. Ultimately they sign with Guy Richardson of a major record label. With success in their hands, he asks her up to his apartment and they have passionate sex. Billie's first major single, "Loverboy", is a success. Billie is called to perform at an awards ceremony, where she meets singer Rafael. Billie gets a threat from Timothy concerning the debt that Dice failed to pay. Billie, upset about how Dice lied about her contract and his arrest, argues with and leaves him. Following the break-up, Billie collaborates with several songwriters, including Rafael, with whom she makes another hit single, "Want You", and her debut album becomes a massive success. Billie begins writing a song on her own, due to her emotional pain. Dice also misses Billie, and also begins writing a song. Billie goes to Dice's apartment to reconcile with him but discovers he is not home. Billie discovers the music he has written, and realizes they wrote the same song: "Never Too Far", and kisses his music sheet. Dice, upon seeing her lipstick prints on the sheet, plans a reconciliation, but is shot dead by Timothy. Before playing at Madison Square Garden, a devastated Billie sees the news report of Dice's death, and onstage after, commands the band to stop playing "Loverboy". She tearfully tells the audience not to take the ones they love for granted, and she then starts to sing "Never Too Far". Afterwards, Billie reads a note Dice had left her, where he tells her that he loves her and that he has found Lillian. Billie's limo takes her to the secluded rural property where she is happily reunited with her mother once again. 

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Blade of the Immortal follows the deeds of Manji, a skilled samurai who has a decisive advantage: no wound can kill him, except for a rare poison. In the past, his criminal actions led to the death of 100 other samurai (including his sister's husband). He becomes immortal at the hand of an 800-year-old nun named Yaobikuni, and is compelled by the death of his sister to accept the quest that will end his agelessness. He has vowed to make amends by killing 1,000 evil men, and until he does Manji will be kept alive by , remarkable creatures that allow him to survive nearly any injury and reattach severed limbs even after hours of separation. They work by sacrificing themselves to seal the wound - they are worms that were bred to be as close in chemical and physical make-up to humans as possible without actually being human. They cannot handle regrowth on a large scale, but, for example, can reattach a severed limb or seal a hole in the brain. Manji crosses paths with a young girl named Rin Asano and promises to help her avenge her parents, who were killed by a cadre of master swordsmen led by Anotsu Kagehisa. Anotsu killed Rin's father and his entire dōjō, making them a family of outcasts. Anotsu's quest is to gather other outcasts and form an extremely powerful new dojo, the Ittō-ryū (a school teaching any technique that wins, no matter how exotic or underhanded), and has started taking over and destroying other dojos. In addition, another group calling itself the Mugai-ryū has emerged, in opposition to the Ittō-ryū. Its true leadership and motives are initially a mystery, but its methods (any tactics that lead to victory) resemble those of the Ittō-ryū. They try to enlist Manji's help as they seem to want the same thing. Eventually, Manji joins but quickly pulls out after he finds out a member, Shira, is way too sadistic for his tastes. After a while, Manji finally discovers that the Mugai-ryū work for the government. They are all death row inmates who are allowed to live only if they serve the shogunate. While Manji and Shira quickly grow to hate each other, after Shira runs off, Manji remains on friendly terms with the other members of the group. 

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in the midst of a battle. While the online version of The Order of the Stick unfolds continuously, the strips have been broken down into plot arcs for purposes of publication; the plot summary that follows breaks the story down into these arcs for clarity. Burlew notes in the commentary of War and XPs that the strips contained within that volume were the first to be plotted with publication in mind from the very beginning.Burlew, War and XPs, Introduction, p. 5. Several volumes have been released in book-only format: On the Origin of PCs, a prequel to the heroes' adventures;http://www.giantitp.com/GIPOTS00.html Start of Darkness, a prequel to the villains' escapades;http://www.giantitp.com/GIPOTS99.html and Snips, Snails and Dragon Tails, a collection of all the Dragon Magazine comics plus 80 pages of new material. 

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The story is about a boy called Mangchi. He is small, but he possesses a magical hammer that helps him get around all his problems. He therefore got the nickname of "Hammerboy". Mangchi lives on a small distant island called Candlestick because everywhere else has turned into a wasteland because of some big catastrophe. When Princess Poplar from the kingdom of Jemius is being pursued by henchmen of the conspirator Moonk, Hammerboy sides with her, ready to unleash all his latent powers in order to save humankind. 

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The film centers on Cebe, a rebellious and troubled young girl, played by Linda Manz — interested only in Elvis Presley and punk rock music — as well as her ex- convict father Don Barnes (Dennis Hopper), and her high-strung mother Kathy (Sharon Farrell). 

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The player controls BLOB (Bio-Logically Operated Being), whose mission is to penetrate the unstable core of a rogue planet which has appeared from a black hole. If the core is not repaired within the set time limit it will implode causing a chain reaction which will destroy the entire universe. The planet is inhabited by various primitive creatures, all hazardous to the touch, and the remnants of a previous civilisation which provides the items needed to rebuild and stabilise the planet core. 

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A dissatisfied yuppie couple in the IT business, with no kids and a fancy house in a prestige neighbourhood, have a few weeks off before the husband's new career challenges. Envious about their friends' exotic holiday destinations, the husband meets a travel agent at a party, offering the ultimate experience: a one-month vacation under a false identity in Jakomäki, a suburban block of flats in Helsinki. Part of the deal is that their credit cards, house keys, phones, passports, and custom automobile are all traded in for a run-down council-housing apartment and four envelopes each with a weekly cash, equal to a standard unemployment allowance. Acting as an unemployed couple, their street credibility is often questioned by their new neighbours who are more at home with the ways of the concrete jungle. However, they discover after the first week that the second envelope is empty, and that the travel agency where they purchased their extreme vacation, does not exist. 

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The story begins when a friend of Dr. Watson's wife comes to Watson's house, frantic because her husband, who is addicted to opium, has gone missing. Watson helps her pull him out of the opium den and sends him home. Watson is surprised to find that Sherlock Holmes is there too, in disguise and trying to get information to solve a different case about a man who has disappeared. Watson stays to listen to Holmes tell the story of the case of Neville St. Clair. The case involves Mr. Neville St. Clair, a prosperous, respectable, punctual man, who is missing. His family's home is in the country, but he visits London every day on business. One day when Mr. St. Clair was in London, Mrs. St. Clair also went to London separately. She happened to pass down Upper Swandam Lane, a "vile alley" near the London docks, where the opium den is. Glancing up, she saw her husband at a second- floor window of the opium den. He vanished from the window immediately, and Mrs. St. Clair was sure that there was something wrong. She tried to enter the building; but her way was blocked by the opium den's owner, a lascar. She fetched the police, but they did not find Mr. St. Clair. The room behind the window was the lair of a dirty, disfigured beggar, known to the police as Hugh Boone. The police were about to put her story down as a mistake of some kind when Mrs. St. Clair noticed a box of wooden toy bricks that her husband said he would buy for their son. A further search turned up some of St. Clair's clothes. Later, his coat, with the pockets stuffed with hundreds of pennies and halfpennies, was found on the bank of the River Thames, just below the building's back window. Hugh Boone was arrested at once, but would say nothing, except to deny any knowledge of St. Clair. He also resisted any attempt to make him wash. Holmes was initially quite convinced that St. Clair had been murdered, and that Boone was involved. Thus he investigated the den in disguise. He and Watson return to St. Clair's home, to a surprise. It is several days after the disappearance; but on that day Mrs. St. Clair had received a letter from her husband in his own handwriting, with his wedding ring enclosed, telling her not to worry. This forces Holmes to reconsider his conclusions, leading him eventually to an extraordinary solution. Holmes and Watson go the police station where Hugh Boone is held; Holmes brings a bath sponge in a Gladstone bag. Finding Boone asleep, Holmes washes the sleeping Boone's dirty face—revealing Neville St. Clair. Mr. St. Clair has been leading a double life, as a respectable businessman, and as a beggar. In his youth, he had been an actor before becoming a newspaper reporter. In order to research an article, he had disguised himself as a beggar for a short time, and was able to collect a surprising amount of money due to a skillset uncommon to beggars; his actor's skills enabled him to emulate a more sympathetic character with make-up, as well as provide a repertoire of witty dialogue with which to entertain passers-by to offer coins—he was as much a street performer as a beggar. Later, he was saddled with a large debt, and returned to the street to beg for several days to pay it off. His newspaper salary was meagre and, tempted by the much larger returns of begging, he eventually became a "professional" beggar. His takings were large enough that he was able to establish himself as a country gentleman, marry well, and begin a respectable family. His wife and children never knew what he did for a living, and when arrested, he feared exposure more than prison or the gallows. But there is no murder, so he is released, and Holmes and the police agree to keep Mr. St. Clair's secret as long as no more is heard of Hugh Boone. 

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As London prepares for Christmas, newspapers report the theft of the near-priceless gemstone, the "Blue Carbuncle", from the hotel suite of the Countess of Morcar. John Horner, a plumber and a previously convicted felon, is soon arrested for the theft. Despite Horner's claims of innocence, the police are sure that they have their man. Horner's record, and his presence in the Countess's room where he was repairing a fireplace, are all the police need. Just after Christmas, Watson pays a visit to Holmes at 221B Baker Street. He finds the detective contemplating a battered old hat brought to him by the commissionaire, Peterson. Both the hat and a Christmas goose had been dropped by a man in a scuffle with some street ruffians. The honest Peterson had sought Holmes's help in returning the items to their owner but although the goose bears a tag with the owner's name—Henry Baker. Peterson takes the goose home for dinner, and Holmes keeps the hat to study as an intellectual exercise. Peterson returns excited, carrying the Blue Carbuncle, saying that he found the gem in the goose's crop (an error by Conan Doyle, as geese do not have a crop). Realizing that the identity of Henry Baker is now part of a larger mystery, Holmes makes a concerted effort to identify him. Based on his observations of the hat and its condition, Holmes deduces Baker's age, social standing, intellect and domestic status, but cannot determine whether Baker knew that he was carrying the priceless gem. When Baker appears in response to advertisements that Holmes had placed in London newspapers, Holmes's deductions prove correct. Holmes gives Baker a new goose. Happily accepting the replacement bird, Baker declines to take away his original bird's entrails, thus convincing Holmes that he knew nothing about the gem. He does, however, provide the valuable information that he had purchased the goose at the Alpha Inn, a pub near his place of employment, the British Museum. Holmes and Watson set out across the city to determine how the jewel travelled from the Countess of Morcar's hotel room to the goose's crop. The proprietor of the Alpha Inn informs them that the goose was purchased from a dealer in Covent Garden. There, a merchant named Breckinridge gets angry with Holmes and refuses to help. He complains of the pestering he has endured about geese sold recently to the landlord of the Alpha Inn. Holmes, realizing that he is not the only one aware of the gem's connection to the goose, tricks an irate Breckinridge into revealing that the bird was supplied by a Mrs Oakshott, a poultry and egg seller in Brixton. James Ryder imploring Holmes' mercy A trip to Brixton proves unnecessary when Breckinridge's other "pesterer" appears (a cringing little man named James Ryder, head attendant at the hotel where the carbuncle was stolen), again pressuring Breckinridge to tell him the whereabouts of the Oakshott geese. Then, Holmes and Watson invite Ryder back to Baker Street, telling Ryder that they know he is looking for a goose with a black bar on its tail. Holmes tells Ryder that the goose "laid an egg after it was dead", terrifying Ryder who believes that Holmes will turn him over to the police. Pressured by Holmes, Ryder says that he and his accomplice Catherine Cusack, the Countess's maid, contrived to frame Horner, knowing that Horner's criminal past would make him an easy scapegoat. But he was plagued by fears of arrest after stealing the stone. During a visit to his sister—Mrs. Oakshott—Ryder hit on the idea of hiding the jewel by feeding it to one of the geese being bred by his sister, one of which had been promised to him as a gift. Unfortunately, Ryder dropped his goose and then confused it with another, taking away the wrong bird. By the time he realised his mistake, the other geese had already been sold. Ryder tried to follow the trail but got no further than Breckinridge. Holmes does not have Ryder arrested. He concludes that arresting the anguished man will only make him into a more hardened criminal. Ryder flees to the continent, and Horner can expect to be freed as the case against him will collapse without Ryder's perjured testimony. 

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Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson rise unusually early one morning to meet a young woman named Helen Stoner who fears that her life is being threatened by her stepfather, Dr. Grimesby Roylott. Roylott is a doctor who practiced in Calcutta, India and was married to Helen's late mother when she was a widow living there. He is also the impoverished last survivor of what was once a wealthy but violent, ill- tempered and amoral Anglo-Saxon aristocratic family of Surrey, and has already served a jail sentence for killing his Indian butler in a rage. Helen's twin sister had died almost two years earlier, shortly before she was to be married. Helen had heard her sister's dying words, "The speckled band!" but was unable to decode their meaning. Helen herself, troubled by the perplexing death of her sister, is now engaged, and she has begun to hear strange noises and observe strange activities around Stoke Moran, the impoverished and heavily mortgaged estate where she and her stepfather live. Dr. Roylott also keeps strange company at the estate. He is friendly with a band of gypsies on the property, and has a cheetah and a baboon as pets. For some time, he has been making changes to the house. Before Helen's sister's death, he had modifications made inside the house, and is now having the outside wall repaired, forcing Helen to move into the room where her sister died. Holmes listens carefully to Helen's story and agrees to take the case. He plans a visit to the manor later in the day. Before he can leave, however, he is visited by Dr. Roylott himself, who threatens him should he interfere. Undaunted, Holmes proceeds, first to the courthouse, where he examines Helen's late mother's will, and then to the countryside. At Stoke Moran, Holmes inspects the premises carefully inside and out. Among the strange features that he discovers are a bed anchored to the floor, a bell cord that is not attached to any bell, and a ventilator hole between Helen's temporary room and that of Dr Roylott. Holmes and Watson arrange to spend the night in Helen's room. In darkness they wait until about three in the morning; suddenly, a slight metallic noise and a dim light through the ventilator prompt Holmes to action. Quickly lighting a candle, he discovers on the bell cord the "speckled band"—a venomous snake. He strikes at the snake with his walking stick, driving it back through the ventilator. Agitated, it fatally attacks Roylott, who had been waiting for it to return after killing Helen. Holmes identifies the snake as an Indian swamp adder and reveals to Watson the motive: the late wife's will had provided an annual income of £750 sterling, of which each daughter could claim one third upon marriage. Thus, Dr. Roylott plotted to remove both of his stepdaughters before they married to avoid losing most of the fortune he controlled when the daughters took with them their share of money left for them by their mother. Holmes admits his attack on the snake may make him indirectly responsible for Roylott's demise, but he doesn't foresee it troubling him, since his action saved Helen's life. 

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A coronet of a British earl A banker, Mr. Alexander Holder of Streatham, makes a loan of £50,000 (equivalent to approximately £ in This calculation assumes that the story takes place in 1886, which is suggested by Leslie S. Klinger in Volume I (p. 761) of The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes (W. W. Norton, 2005). The year in which the story takes place is not stated in the story, and could be considered slightly different.) to a socially prominent client, who leaves a beryl coronet--one of the most valuable public possessions in existence--as collateral. Holder feels that he must not leave this rare and precious piece of jewellery in his personal safe at the bank, and so he takes it home with him to lock it up there. He is awakened in the night by a noise, enters his dressing room, and is horrified to see his son Arthur with the coronet in his hands, apparently trying to bend it. Holder's niece Mary comes at the sound of all the shouting and, seeing the damaged coronet, faints dead away. Three beryls are missing from it. In a panic, Mr. Holder travels to see Holmes, who agrees to take the case. The case against Arthur seems rather damning, yet Holmes is not convinced of his guilt. Why is Arthur refusing to give a statement of any kind? How could Arthur have broken the coronet (even Holmes, who has exceptionally strong hands, cannot do it) and without making any noise? Could any other people in the household be involved, such as the servants, or Mary? Could some visitor, such as the maid's wooden-legged suitor, or Arthur's rakish friend Sir George Burnwell, have something to do with what happened to the coronet? The failure to resolve the case will result in Mr. Holder's dishonour, and a national scandal. Holmes sets about not only reviewing the details that he learns from Holder, but also by examining the footprints in the snow outside. Eventually, Holmes solves the mystery, and Holder is flabbergasted to find that his niece was in league with a notorious criminal (Sir George Burnwell), although apparently she is unaware of his character. The two of them escape justice; however, Holmes is convinced that they will receive their punishment in due time. Arthur's motive in allowing his father to think he was the thief was that he was in love with his cousin Mary and saw her passing the coronet to a confederate outside the window. (The coronet was broken when Arthur was struggling to wrench it from Burnwell's grasp.) Holmes regains the jewels after threatening Sir George at gunpoint. 

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A man takes his American freedoms for granted, until he wakes up one morning to find out that the United States Government has been replaced with a Communist system. The basis for this short film, narrated by Jack Webb, is the alleged Soviet re-creation of US communities for the purpose of training infiltrators, spies, and moles. The film begins in what looks like a typical American town. The camera moves back to reveal barbed wire, barricades, and soldiers in Soviet Army uniforms. Narrator Jack Webb informs us that there are several places behind the Iron Curtain used for training Soviet espionage and sabotage forces prior to infiltrating America. Webb introduces us to a typical American family of father Jerry (Jack Kelly), wife Helen (Jeanne Cooper), and daughter Linda (Patricia Woodell, the original Bobbie Jo on Petticoat Junction) Donovan. Her boyfriend Bill Martin (Peter Brown) has been invited to dinner but while Jerry lectures Bill on football plays, Bill only has eyes for Linda. All is not well, as Jerry's missing his PTA meeting to go bowling, and his intention to miss his Army Reserve training does not go over well with Helen. Linda and Bill inform Jerry and Helen they wish to get married but Jerry is angered and says they are too young, but he would have no objection if they waited five years after university. Jack Webb explains how safe Jerry is in his world, but when Jerry goes to sleep, Webb looks grim and tells the audience Jerry is going to have a Red Nightmare. Jerry awakes to find meetings in the public square about infiltrating America to bring down Capitalism. He returns home to find his daughter going to a farm collective escorted by Bill, who is now in Russian Army uniform. Helen informs Jerry that he will have to address the PTA on the glories of communism, which Jerry refuses to do, but his wife says he has no choice. At work, Jerry's foreman (Robert Conrad) tells him that he has not met his quota and must work through the lunch break to meet it. On Sunday morning, Jerry wakes to find his two youngest children being sent to a State Communist school against his wishes. Jerry insists on the children going to Sunday School, and takes them to their church that has been turned into a museum glorifying the Soviet Union, including many inventions made by Americans which the Soviets claim to have invented. Jerry knocks the exhibits over, and is arrested by troops led by a Commissar (Peter Breck). Jerry is brought to trial at a Soviet tribunal (Judge, Andrew Duggan; prosecutor, Mike Road), where there is no jury nor a defense attorney. Jerry demands to know what he is charged with, but the rights Americans take for granted are long gone. After condemning testimony from several witnesses, including his own wife, Jerry is convicted and sentenced to death. When he is strapped into the execution chair, Jerry makes a speech about the Soviet people awakening one day to overthrow communism, before he gets a bullet in the head from the Commissar (the killing is offscreen). Jerry wakes up to his freedoms and apologizes to Bill and Linda. Bill says that Jerry had a point about waiting to get married and he and Linda will do so after he finishes his enlistment in the United States Army. 

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Violet Hunter visits Holmes, asking whether she should accept a job as governess--a job with very strange conditions. She is enticed by the phenomenal salary which, as originally offered, is £100 a year, later increased to £120 when Miss Hunter baulks at having to cut her long copper-coloured hair short (her previous position paid £48 a year). This is only one of many peculiar provisos to which she must agree. The employer, Jephro Rucastle, seems pleasant enough, yet Miss Hunter obviously has her suspicions. She announces to Holmes, after the raised salary offer, that she will take the job, and Holmes suggests that if he is needed, a telegram will bring him to Hampshire, where Mr Rucastle's country estate, the Copper Beeches, is situated. After a fortnight, Holmes receives such a message, beseeching him to come and see her in Winchester. Miss Hunter tells them one of the most singular stories that they have ever heard. Mr Rucastle would sometimes have Miss Hunter wear a particular electric blue dress and sit in the front room reading, with her back to the front window. She began to suspect that she was not supposed to see something outside the window, and a small mirror shard hidden in her handkerchief showed her that she was right: there was a man standing there on the road looking towards the house. At another such session, Mr Rucastle told a series of funny stories that made Miss Hunter laugh until she was quite weary. The one astonishing thing about this was that Mrs Rucastle not only did not laugh, but did not even smile. There were other unsavoury things about the household. The six-year-old child that she was supposed to look after was astonishingly cruel to small animals. The servants, Mr and Mrs Toller, were quite a sour pair. A great mastiff was kept on the property, and always kept hungry. It was let out to prowl the grounds at night and Miss Hunter was warned not to cross the threshold after dark. Also, Toller, who was quite often drunk, was the only one who had any control over the dog. There was also the odd discovery by Miss Hunter of what appeared to be her own tresses in a locked drawer. Upon checking her own luggage, however, they turned out to be another woman's, but identical in every way to Miss Hunter's, even to the unusual colour. However, the most disturbing thing of all about the household was the mystery wing. Miss Hunter had observed that there was a part of the house that did not seem to be used. The windows were either dirty or shuttered, and once she saw Mr Rucastle coming out of the door leading into the wing looking most perturbed. Later, he explained that he used the rooms as a photographic darkroom, but Miss Hunter was not convinced. When he is drunk, Toller leaves the keys in the door to the mystery wing. Miss Hunter sneaks in. She finds the place spooky and when she spots a shadow moving on the other side of a locked door, she panics and runs out, into Mr Rucastle's waiting arms. Mr Rucastle does not reproach her, instead he pretends to comfort her. However, he overdoes his act and alerts her suspicions, causing her to claim that she saw nothing. In an instant, his expression changes from comfort to rage. With the aid of the great detective, it is discovered that someone has been kept a prisoner in the forbidden wing. The purpose of hiring Miss Hunter becomes clear: her presence is to convince the man watching from the road that Rucastle's daughter Alice, previously unknown to Miss Hunter, and whom she resembles, is no longer interested in seeing him. Watson rescuing Rucastle from his mastiff Holmes, Watson and Miss Hunter find Miss Rucastle's secret room empty; Rucastle arrives and thinks the trio has helped his daughter escape and goes to fetch the mastiff to set upon the trespassers. Unfortunately for Rucastle, the dog has been accidentally starved for longer than usual and attacks him instead. Watson shoots the dog with his revolver. Later, Mrs Toller confirms Holmes' theory about Rucastle's daughter and reveals that when Alice came of age she was to receive an annuity from her late mother's will; Rucastle tried to force his daughter to sign control of the inheritance over to him which only resulted in Alice becoming ill with brain fever; hence, the cut hair. Rucastle then tried to keep Alice away from her fiancé by locking her up in the mystery wing and hiring Miss Hunter to unknowingly impersonate Alice. Rucastle's daughter escapes with her fiancé, and they marry soon after. Watson notes, at the end of the story, that Holmes appears to have been drawn to Miss Hunter. However, to his disappointment, Holmes does not show any interest in Miss Hunter after the mystery has been solved, which was the real force behind his feelings. Rucastle survives as an invalid, kept alive solely by his second wife. Miss Hunter later becomes principal of a girls' school, where, according to Watson, she meets with "considerable success". 

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On Halloween, Bart, Lisa and Maggie sit in the treehouse and tell scary stories, while Homer who had just come home from trick or treating eavesdrops on them. 

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The series was originally set in 1990; as the series progressed, Hamilton quickly stopped using exact dates (except as "in the past" as in the voyages of the astronauts who first landed on most of the other planets of the Solar System), sticking with a series continuity. In later stories, if the date was asked or revealed, it was done so discreetly. Iconic Captain Future cover from Startling Stories January 1950, painted by Earle K. Bergey. The series begins when genius scientist Roger Newton, his wife Elaine, and his fellow scientist Simon Wright leave planet Earth to do research in an isolated laboratory on the moon, and to escape the predations of Victor Corvo (originally: Victor Kaslan), a criminal politician who wished to use Newton's inventions for his own gain. Simon's body is old and diseased and Roger enables him to continue doing research by transplanting his healthy brain into an artificial case (originally immobile—carried around by Grag—later equipped with lifter units). Working together, the two scientists create an intelligent robot called Grag, and an android with shape-shifting abilities called Otho. One day, Corvo arrives on the moon and murders the Newtons; but before he can reap the fruits of his atrocity, Corvo and his killers are in turn slain by Grag and Otho. The deaths of the Newtons leave their son, Curtis, to be raised by the unlikely trio of Otho, Grag, and Simon Wright. Under their tutelage, Curtis grows up to be a brilliant scientist and as strong and fast as any champion athlete. He also grows up with a strong sense of responsibility and hopes to use his scientific skills to help people. With that goal in his mind, he calls himself Captain Future; Simon, Otho and Grag are referred to as the Futuremen in subsequent stories. Other recurring characters in the series are the old space marshal Ezra Gurney, the beautiful Planet Patrol agent Joan Randall (who provides a love interest for Curtis), and James Carthew, President of the Solar System whose office is in New York City and who calls upon Future in extreme need. Captain Future faces many enemies in his career but his archenemy is Ul Quorn, who is the only recurring villain in the series and appears in two different stories. He is part Martian — therefore called the Magician of Mars — but also the son of Victor Corvo, who murdered the Newtons. Quorn is a scientist whose abilities rival those of Captain Future. 

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After the "World Crash of '79", massive civil unrest and economic ruin occurs. The United States government is restructured into a totalitarian regime under martial law. To pacify the population, the government has created the Transcontinental Road Race, where a group of drivers race across the country in their high-powered cars and which is infamous for violence, gore, and innocent pedestrians being struck and killed for bonus points. In the year 2000, the five drivers in the 20th annual race, who all adhere to professional wrestling-style personas and drive appropriately themed cars, include Frankenstein, the mysterious black-garbed champion and national hero; Machine Gun Joe Viterbo, a Chicago tough guy gangster; Calamity Jane, a cowgirl; Matilda the Hun, a neo-Nazi; and Nero the Hero, a Roman gladiator. Machine Gun Joe Viterbo, the second-place champion, is the most determined of all to defeat Frankenstein and win the race. A resistance group led by Thomasina Paine, a descendant of the 1770s American Revolutionary War hero Thomas Paine, plans to rebel against the regime, currently led by a man known only as Mr. President, by sabotaging the race, killing most of the drivers, and taking Frankenstein hostage as leverage against Mr. President. The group is assisted by Paine's great-granddaughter Annie Smith, Frankenstein's navigator. She plans to lure him into an ambush in order to have him replaced by a double. Despite a pirated national broadcast made by Ms. Paine herself, the Resistance's disruption of the race is covered up by the government and instead blamed on the French, who are also blamed for ruining the country's economy and telephone system. At first, the Resistance's plan seems to bear fruit: Nero the Hero is killed when a "baby" he runs over for points turns out to be a bomb, Matilda the Hun drives off a cliff while following a fake detour route set up by the Resistance, and Calamity Jane, who witnessed Matilda the Hun's death, inadvertently drives over a land mine while trying to leave the area. This leaves only Frankenstein and Machine Gun Joe Viterbo in the race. As Frankenstein nonchalantly survives every attempt made on his life during the race, Annie comes to discover that Frankenstein's mask and disfigured face are merely a disguise; he is, in fact, one of a number of random wards of the state who are trained exclusively to race in the identity, and each time they die or are brutally mutilated, they are secretly replaced so that Frankenstein appears to be indestructible. The current Frankenstein reveals to Annie his own plan to kill Mr. President: when he wins the race and shakes hands with Mr. President, he will detonate a grenade which has been implanted in his prosthetic right hand. However, the plan goes awry when Machine Gun Joe Viterbo attacks Frankenstein and Annie is forced to kill him using Frankenstein's "hand grenade". Having successfully outmaneuvered both the rival drivers and the Resistance, Frankenstein is declared the winner of the race, although he is wounded and unable to carry out his original "hand grenade" attack plan. Annie instead dons Frankenstein's costume and plans to stab Mr. President while standing in for him on the podium. Before she is able to do so, Thomasina shoots "Frankenstein", convinced that he killed Annie. The real Frankenstein takes advantage of the confusion and rams Mr. President's stage with his car, finally fulfilling his lifelong desire to kill him. Frankenstein becomes the new President, marries Annie and appoints Thomasina as the Minister of Security to rebuild the state and dissolve the dictatorship. Junior Bruce, the announcer of the Transcontinental Road Race, opposes the race's abolition and impertinently claims that the public needs performances of violence. Annoyed by his complaints, Frankenstein kills Bruce by running him over with his car and drives off with Annie to the cheers and applause of the crowd. 

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While watching a 1950s science fiction movie, Bart and Lisa see a commercial for a model rocket kit and Bart orders it by using Homer's credit card number. Homer helps Bart and Milhouse build it, but it blows up before launching. Jealous that Ned Flanders built a superior rocket, Homer enlists the help of his former nerdy college roommates, Gary, Doug, and Benjamin, to build a rocket piloted by the hamster Nibbles. The rocket lifts off successfully, but it develops complications and Nibbles bails out. However, Homer makes an attempt to shoot down the rocket with a 12 gauge shotgun, but the rocket crashes into the church. The church council meets up to decide how to come up with money to fund the repairs to the church. With no other aid available, they accept help from Mr. Burns and Lindsay Naegle, who wish to run the church as a business. The two rebuild the church as a commercial monstrosity, complete with advertising signs, a currency exchanger, a Lard Lad statue, a photo booth for the churchgoers to put their faces in a cut-out of Jesus in The Last Supper, and a Jumbotron known as "Godcam". Lisa is appalled at this and after Lovejoy welcomes The Noid to hold a sermon "on the sanctity of deliciousness," she abandons the church, feeling her religion has lost its soul.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TP7VvXyJa64&t;=180s That night, Lisa prays to God and assures him she has not turned her back on Him, but plans to seek a new path to “Him” (or “Her,” she says). While on a walk around town, passing many sacrilegious signs, she finds Springfield's Buddhist temple. Inside she sees Lenny and Carl meditating, and Hollywood actor Richard Gere teaches the core concepts of Buddhism to her. An intrigued Lisa takes a pamphlet on Buddhism and studies it at home. It convinces her of the virtues of the faith, and Lisa announces out her window she has become, and forever will be, a Buddhist. Lisa plants her own bodhi tree in the back yard and begins to meditate, but Marge grows increasingly worried about Lisa's soul and tries to convince her to come back to Christianity. At the church council meeting, Reverend Lovejoy tells Marge to use Christmas to bribe her back. Marge bakes cookies, decorates the home, and has Ralph and Milhouse dress as a pony in wrapping paper to tempt her, but Lisa runs from the home when she realizes what is happening. At the Buddhist temple, she tells Richard Gere her family tried to trick her, but Gere informs her that while Buddhism is about one finding inner peace, it is also about respecting the diversity of other religions based on love and compassion. Thus, Lisa is free to celebrate any holiday with her family, including Christmas. Lisa goes back home, falling asleep beside the Christmas tree and tells everyone that she will be celebrating Christmas with them and continue paying lip service to Christianity while practicing Buddhism for the rest of her life. As Marge takes her to the kitchen to get some cookies for her, Lisa asks about her pony, and Marge tries unsuccessfully to change the subject as Lisa calls out for her gift. 

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The game is set on the fictional planet Twinsun, a world which is held in a suspended orbit between two suns resulting in a polar region around its equator. Four different sentient species populate Twinsun; Quetchs are aesthetically similar to humans except that they all possess ponytails, Spheros are short spherical creatures, Grobos resemble anthropomorphic elephants, and Rabbibunnies are tall, thin humanoid rabbits. As the game begins, it is explained that all peoples of Twinsun have been herded into the Southern hemisphere by a brutal tyrant called Dr FunFrock, who has subjugated the planet by developing an army of clones which travel using teleport machines which he has dispersed around the planet. The player character is a young Quetch named Twinsen, who has been incarcerated in an asylum on the fortress-like Citadel Island because of his prophetic dreams about the end of the world. Twinsen escapes from the asylum and returns to his house which he shares with his girlfriend Zoe. When Dr FunFrock's clones arrive to re-arrest him, Zoe hides Twinsen from them and is arrested herself. As Twinsen travels between the islands of the planet, seeking to find a way of overcoming FunFrock's clone army and recovering Zoe, he discovers that his strange dreams are in fact part of the Prophecy, a legendary tale regarding a being known as Sendell who is said to inhabit the core of the planet and watch over the people of Twinsun. Twinsen's dreams are in fact telepathic messages sent by Sendell, who chose his ancestors to help her watch over the planet centuries prior and is now contacting Twinsen (as the current descendant of his family line) to warn the inhabitants of the planet of the danger posed by FunFrock. Realising that finding FunFrock and fulfilling the Prophecy is the only way to recover Zoe, Twinsen teams up with a group of rebels resisting the rule of FunFrock. The rebels help him sabotage FunFrock's cloning and teleportation abilities and give him passage through to the Northern Hemisphere, where FunFrock has set up a massive drilling operation into the heart of the planet. Twinsen breaks into FunFrock's main fortress and finds Zoe seemingly locked in a jail, but she is revealed to be a clone created by FunFrock as bait, and FunFrock reveals that with Twinsen safely locked up where he cannot fulfil his part of the Prophecy, he is free to drill through to the Well of Sendell, deep in the planet's core, where he hopes to encounter Sendell and gain the godly powers she possesses for himself. Twinsen escapes from the clutches of FunFrock's clones and succeeds in blowing the fortress up, clearing the way for him to fight through FunFrock's drilling operation to reach the Well of Sendell. FunFrock waits with Zoe at the entrance to the Well, telling Twinsen that he'll spare Twinsen and Zoe if he opens the Well for FunFrock to advance and reach Sendell. Twinsen pushes FunFrock off the side of a cliff during a sword fight and opens the Well in order to complete the Prophecy, inadvertently allowing a surviving FunFrock access as well. Twinsen defeats FunFrock in a final confrontation, and him and Zoe encounter Sendell, a being appearing to consist purely of glowing electrical energy, who thanks them for saving a gestalt entity which she is protecting in the core of the planet. Sendell uses her powers to allow Twinsen and Zoe to fly back to the surface, where the inhabitants of the planet have prepared a celebration in Twinsen's honour. 

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The main character, Ray Stokes (Olivier Gruner) is a down-on-his luck police officer on a distant, corruptly-ruled mining colony. He has already lost his wife Dana (Anna Karin) to his corrupt boss, John Dawson (Craig Wasson), not from any failure in romantic rivalry, but as part of a deal to pay off their dead daughter's medical bills: making her Dawson's "Contract Wife". Samuel Nelson (Harry Wowchuk), an Enforcement Division chief of security, is sent to clean up the Colony's local Enforcement Division, but is killed in the course of his investigation. Stokes is framed for the murder of another ED officer, also killed by Nelson's assassin. However, Dawson is implicated in Nelson's death and wants to avoid any inquiry. He sends Stokes on a six-month trip to Earth, protecting a cargo of cash. Meanwhile, the crew of The Endeavour has planned to intercept the money ship while the crew are in hibernation. The interception occurs, Stokes and Beth Sheffield (Alicia Coppola), the attractive female navigator, are the only survivors of the ensuing gun play; they steal the money and buy the mining colony. The evil boss is arrested, and presumably they all live happily ever after. 

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In 1896, during the Klondike Gold Rush, a young explorer named Jack Conroy arrives in Alaska from San Francisco to look for his deceased father's mining claim. Conroy meets two mushers named Clarence "Skunker" Thurston and Alex Larson, Conroy's father's buddy, who reluctantly agree to guide Jack to his father's claim in the Yukon. While on their journey, they are stalked by a large pack of wolves. One night, while resting at a campfire, a female wolf named Kiche manages to lure one of the sled dogs (Digger) away from the group, and another wolf appears and chases the dog into the woods. Skunker uses his ammunition to wound Kiche and gives chase to save his dog, but is killed and devoured by the rest of the pack. Later that night the wolves return but are scared off by Jack and Alex using burning branches. The following morning the wolves attack the two men, but they are saved when another sled team arrives with one of the men mortally shooting a female wolf. The injured wolf hobbles back to her den, and her cub remains by her side until she dies. The pup is left to fend for himself. Jack and Alex reach a town where they plan to stay for the winter. A band of Native Americans, meanwhile, find the pup, and the chief, realizing he is half dog and half wolf from the color of his teeth, names him White Fang. As spring comes, Jack and Alex resume their quest, but stop off at the Native Americans' settlement. The chief explains that White Fang has been raised to obey, not to be friendly, but Jack seeks to change that. Jack's chance comes when he is chased and cornered by a grizzly bear. White Fang intervenes, saving Jack's life. Jack and Alex later leave the settlement. Not long after, White Fang is unfairly traded to a brutal dogfighter named Beauty Smith (who previously stole Jack's money); he blackmails the Native American for the wolfdog, saying that ownership of a wild animal is considered illegal. Smith and his gang train White Fang to be vicious in order to enter him into illegal dogfights. White Fang eventually meets his match in a brutal fight against a bulldog, but Jack happens upon the fight and intervenes in the nick of time. Having earlier reached his father's claim and begun the work of digging for gold, Jack returns with White Fang to the cabin where he seeks to transform White Fang's vicious and territorial nature. Jack's attempts to tame White Fang eventually succeed; both wolfdog and man develop a close and trusting bond. Alex helps Jack mine for gold and they strike it rich with the help of White Fang. One morning, Jack travels to the town to claim proper ownership to the gold when Luke notices White Fang with him. Seeking retaliation and planning to steal the gold, Smith and his men attack the cabin site. White Fang attacks Tinker, who accidentally discharges his gun, wounding Luke. White Fang subdues Smith until he's ordered by Jack to back down. Jack and Alex take Smith and his men prisoner and force them at gunpoint to haul gold ore into town. Alex and his wife, Belinda, offer to take Jack back to San Francisco, but he lets Jack know that city life is no place for a wolf; he must let White Fang run free in the wild. Though White Fang cannot understand why Jack is trying to leave him, Jack's efforts by using a stick (which White Fang hated/feared when he was under Smith) finally succeed in scaring the wolfdog off. Later, just as he's boarding the ship back to San Francisco, Jack realizes that his rightful place is in the Yukon and he decides to stay behind alone and live off the land; Alex congratulates him by saying that it is what Jack's father would have wanted. After a short time, White Fang returns to the cabin site where he and Jack are happily reunited. 

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The game begins with Professor Farnsworth, wearing a sombrero, selling the Planet Express delivery company to Mom, explaining that it had been losing money for years due to mismanagement. The buyout gives Mom ownership of more than fifty percent of Earth, allowing her to become the supreme ruler of Earth. Soon after this, she enslaves humanity. After Fry, Leela, Bender, and Farnsworth repair the inexplicably broken ship, they escape from Earth with the Professor's new invention, the Re-animator (which closely resembles a giant toaster), which brings the crew back to life every time they die. However, Mom pursues them in an effort to capture Farnsworth. She hopes to turn Earth into a giant warship, and Farnsworth is the only person who knows how to build an engine large enough to move the Earth. She ultimately captures Farnsworth, places his head in a jar, and sends the ship hurtling into the Sun with Fry, Leela, and Bender on board. After discovering that the Sun is habitable, they help the Sun People, then head for the planet of Bogad, where Farnsworth's mentor, Adoy, lives. Adoy has invented a time machine, which he uses to send Fry, Leela and Bender back to a few minutes before Mom buys Planet Express from the Professor. However, the ship crashes into Planet Express, destroying the ship. This prompts them to steal the ship of the past, leaving the broken ship to be repaired by their past selves. They attempt to stop the sale, which prompts Mom to send Destructor to attack them. They defeat the robot, but the Re- animator gets damaged and falls on Destructor, causing it to fall on top of them. Angry at the fact that the robot killed his crew, the professor refuses to sell Planet Express. But after Mom bribes him with a sombrero, he sells, and the events of the game continue in an endless cycle. 

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The USS Enterprise, under the command of Captain Kirk, is on an 8-day supply mission to Colony Beta VI. Passing through a "star desert", the ship encounters a rogue planet previously hidden from their sensors. As Lt. Sulu attempts to enter a course around the planet, he suddenly vanishes from the bridge, and Kirk vanishes a moment later. First Officer Spock assumes that the two must have been taken to the planet, though sensor readings indicate the planet's atmosphere is lethal to most forms of life. The Enterprise then receives a strange message on a viewscreen in blackletter writing: "Greetings and Felicitations!", followed by "Hip hip hoorah. Tallyho!" Spock orders Chief Medical Officer Dr. McCoy, along with Lt. DeSalle and geophysicist Karl Jaeger, to form a landing party and conduct a search. The landing party beams down and unexpectedly finds itself in a lush and breathable environment. They also come across what appears to be a medieval castle, within which they find Captain Kirk and Lt. Sulu, immobilised, along with a humanoid being who identifies himself as "General Trelane, Retired", and invites everyone to stay as his guests on his world which he calls Gothos. McCoy's medical tricorder cannot detect this person. Spock, meanwhile, manages to locate the landing party in a minute zone of breathable atmosphere, and beams everyone, except Trelane, back to the ship by locking onto every detectable lifeform in the area. Trelane, however, appears on the Enterprises bridge, and brings the entire bridge crew down to the planet, including Spock, Communications Officer Lt. Uhura and Yeoman Teresa Ross. Kirk's patience begins to wear thin, especially when Trelane dances with Yeoman Ross and changes her standard red uniform into a 19th-century ball gown. Kirk and Spock both notice that their host never strays far from a particular wall mirror; they surmise that the mirror is the source of his powers. To test this theory, Kirk provokes Trelane into a duel and during the fight he destroys the mirror and damages some strange machinery inside. The bridge crew then beams back to the Enterprise, but, as the ship attempts to warp away, the planet Gothos keeps appearing in its path. Kirk finally orders the Enterprise into orbit and decides to beam down. On the planet, Kirk finds Trelane seated on a courtroom bench, dressed in the white wig and robes reminiscent of an English circuit judge. Trelane reads charges of "treason", "conspiracy", and "fomenting insurrection", and then, silencing Kirk's protests, condemns Kirk to death by hanging. Kirk, however, points out that Trelane could find a more stimulating alternative. Trelane suggests that Kirk be prey for a royal hunt, and Kirk agrees in return for the release of his ship. The hunt begins, and Kirk is eventually cornered at the castle entrance, but remains defiant. Suddenly two energy beings appear and call out to Trelane, ordering him to "come along", and lecturing him for his misbehavior. He then disappears, and the two beings follow after apologizing to Kirk, who returns to the ship. 

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Samantha MacKenzie is the only child of United States president John MacKenzie. Because of her father's political career, she has been in the public eye her entire life and spent most of her high school years in the White House. Having to deal with lack of privacy and public scrutiny for the most ridiculous things, Sam has had a sheltered existence and her father has trouble letting her have more freedom yet is too busy to spend time with her. Though her mother Melanie is supportive, she still stands by her husband's decisions, leaving Sam feeling restricted from having a normal life. Accompanied by Secret Service agents everywhere she goes, and with her father running for re-election, Sam finally believes she has the chance to break out of her cocoon when she is given the opportunity to attend college in California. At school, Sam ends up sharing a dorm room with boy-crazed Mia Thompson, who is hesitant at first to room with the first daughter, but eventually warms to Sam. After Sam's Secret Service agents tackle a student brandishing a water gun at a pool party and hastily evacuate Sam from the premises, she insists that her detail be reduced to just two agents, which her father begrudgingly agrees to. Settling into some semblance of normalcy, Sam meets and becomes interested in fellow student James Lansome, her resident advisor. James helps her avoid paparazzi, escape her security team, and experience life as a normal girl. They discuss their deepest thoughts and wishes, and Sam tells him that although she is never alone, she is often lonely. She says she always wanted to get in an old Volkswagen and drive herself off to college, with no babysitters or parents. As a thanks to James and Mia for their tolerance of her complicated world, Sam flies them home to D.C. to attend a ball, with the dresses delivered to her personally by Vera Wang. Outside the ball, a disruptive protest causes Sam's security team to evacuate her again, when she discovers that James is actually an agent and has been protecting her all along. Heartbroken and betrayed, Sam tries to readjust to college life, but an attempt to make James jealous only results in her drunken photo splashed across tabloid articles. She returns home to help her father on the last stretch of his campaign, while James is disciplined for failure to act in a manner becoming of an agent. Sam asks her father to make sure James's career is not ruined by their romance, to which he agrees. The President wins re-election and dances with Sam at his inauguration ball, referencing something she told him in his speech and acknowledging that she is now a grown woman and worthy of his respect. Sam is surprised and pleased to see that James is in attendance at the ball, having been reassigned to the presidential detail. They dance, and he gives her keys to an old Volkswagen (her dream car) and encourages her to go "break some rules." The film ends with Sam driving off in her car heading back to college and the narrator telling us that she will be back in the Spring, and will reunite with James. 

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The film is set in western China in 700AD during the Tang Dynasty, and revolves around two protagonists, the first of whom is Lieutenant Li of the Chinese army. Li's refusal to kill Göktürk women and child prisoners is classed as a mutiny, leading him to be expelled from the army and to become a fugitive, traveling through the Gobi Desert. Years later, he is saved by the survivors of a caravan which carries a powerful, mystical relic accompanied by a Buddhist monk. Li protects the caravan from Göktürks as well as the overlord of the region, Master An, who is hired by the Göktürk Khan to seize the relic. The second protagonist, a Japanese emissary, Lai Xi, is ordered by the emperor of China to kill the fugitive, Li. In a twist of fate, Lai Xi discovers that the caravan is on a mission and helps Li to defend it, to ensure that it arrives at the capital safely. They promise to fight each other only after their duty is done, although that battle never comes to pass. 

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In this bridge novel between McMurtry's Dead Man's Walk and Lonesome Dove, Woodrow Call and Gus McCrae are in their middle years, still serving as respected Texas Rangers. 

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After finding out that all of the nuclear plant's staff members had been informed of the plant's maintenance via e-mail, Homer decides to buy a computer. After he gives up on learning how to use it, Lisa sets up the computer. Homer eventually catches on and starts his own webpage, which contains copyrighted material from other pages. To avoid getting sued, Homer calls himself "Mister X". Late at night, unable to sleep until someone visits his page, Homer hears a rumor from Bart started by either Nelson Muntz or Jimbo Jones that Mayor Quimby spent the street repair fund on a secret swimming pool. He posts this rumor on his page, which is seen by several of Springfield's citizens. Mayor Quimby is the subject of a citywide scandal when a barrage of reporters find a luxurious pool along with many scantily dressed women in Quimby's office. Homer keeps his anonymity while posting more rumors and finds out Mr. Burns plans to sell plutonium to terrorists and is later arrested by the CIA. Eventually, Mr. X wins the Pulitzer Prize for his journalistic achievements, despite nobody knowing who he is. When he hears that the prize money will be given to starving children, Homer reveals that he is Mr. X. However, this ends up alienating Homer from the rest of the town, as nobody feels comfortable confessing their secrets now that they know he is Mr. X, and his fame soon plummets. To boost his popularity, Homer begins posting outrageous stories on his webpage. Regaining his fame, Homer celebrates by going to a fake Kwik-E- Mart, and ends up being kidnapped. Homer wakes up on the "Island", a place where the inhabitants are people who have been exiled from society for harboring dangerous secrets. Homer learns from the organization's leader, Number Two, that a story he wrote about flu vaccinations containing a mind- control serum is true; the mind control drug is calibrated to drive people into a frenzy of shopping, which is why flu shots are administered shortly before Christmas. While Homer is trapped on the Island, he is replaced by a doppelgänger who looks identical to him but speaks with a thick German accent. Number Six, who is trapped on the Island for inventing the bottomless peanut bag, tells Homer about a makeshift boat he spent thirty-three years making, which Homer steals and escapes the Island with, popping the Rover that emerges from the water to trap him. When he gets home, Homer tries to send out a message to the police through his computer, but is stopped by Number Two taking over the computer and is caught by his doppelgänger. Homer fights his double and defeats him by kicking him in the crotch. Marge and the kids are happy that the real Homer has returned, but then a fake Santa's Little Helper spouts a gas that drugs the entire family. The episode ends with everyone in the family enjoying their strange, new life on the Island. 

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A brief introduction describes "cutters", who edit the collected memories of the recently dead into feature- length memorials that are viewed by loved ones at funerals. Their code forbids them to mix footage from implants, to have the requisite implant, or to sell memories. The film opens with Alan Hakman as a child (Casey Dubois). While visiting a city with his parents, he meets another boy, Louis (Liam Ranger), and the two bond as they play together. Louis reluctantly joins Hakman in exploring an abandoned factory, and Hakman crosses a wooden plank suspended high above the ground. Goaded by Hakman, Louis also attempts to cross the plank, but he loses his confidence and falls. Hakman races to the ground and panics when he steps in what he thinks is Louis' blood. Hakman flees the scene and tells no one what happened. Later that day, he leaves the city with his parents. Years later, the adult Hakman (Robin Williams) has become a skilled cutter who specializes in editing the memories of controversial people into hagiographies. When Fletcher (Jim Caviezel), a former cutter, confronts him at a funeral, Hakman describes himself as a sin-eater, who brings redemption to the immoral. Fletcher offers him $500,000 for the memories of his latest client, wealthy businessman Charles Bannister (Michael St. John Smith), but Hakman refuses. In a later meeting, Fletcher demands the memory recordings so that he can use Bannister, who he suspects was a pedophile, as a scandal to shut down EYE Tech, the implant manufacturer. Hakman again refuses, and, worried for his safety, uses his knowledge from memory tapes to shake down a shady criminal for a pistol. As Hakman works through Bannister's memories, he encounters a scene that implies that Bannister was molesting his daughter, Isabel (Genevieve Buechner). Hakman wordlessly deletes it and presses on. He eventually comes upon a person that he is convinced must be his childhood friend Louis. Excited, he sets up a meeting with Bannister's family to find out more information. Bannister's wife Jennifer (Stephanie Romanov) is dismissive, but Isabel reveals that the man, recently dead of a car crash, was a teacher named Louis Hunt. Hoping that Hunt had an implant, Hakman organizes a break-in at EYE Tech, but they have no record of Hunt. Instead, Hakman finds a file on himself, which he is surprised to find documents his parents' purchase of an implant for him. In his distress, Hakman turns to his lover, Delila (Mira Sorvino). At his apartment, he shows her the equipment that he uses to view memories, and he demonstrates surreal footage from a defective implant. He leaves her alone as he seeks help from anti-implant protestors, who have discovered a way to block the implant through specialized body modification. When he returns to find his apartment in disarray, he assumes that Fletcher has broken in; instead, Delila confronts him, having found memory tapes that document her prior relationship. She accuses him of voyeurism and angrily destroys his memory viewer, which results in Bannister's files also being damaged. Fletcher and his associate finally break in, but they find nothing. Hakman tells Bannister's wife that the erased footage was lost in an accident, and she feigns disappointment, content to let dirty secrets stay hidden. Hakman asks his colleagues to recover live footage from his own implant, a potentially deadly process. They agree, but admonish him that he can never cut memories again; a cutter with an implant is a violation of the "Cutter's code". The resulting memories show Hakman attempted to dissuade Louis from crossing the plank, and stepping in red paint, not blood. Hakman, relieved, visits Hunt's grave but is confronted again by Fletcher, who has learned about Hakman's implant. After chasing Hakman through the graveyard, he hesitates and seems willing to let Hakman go; however, Fletcher's associate kills Hakman. In the last scene, Fletcher loads Hakman's memories into a viewer and promises to use them for the greater good. As he pages through Hakman's memories, looking for evidence of Bannister's guilt, he sees Hakman watching himself in a mirror, and the memory implant lingers on the scene after Hakman has left. 

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;Prologue A young woman, Blanca Trueba (Winona Ryder), arrives at a house with an old man and the young woman starts remembering her life, specifically through the eyes of her mother, who kept journals throughout her life to help herself understand the connections between people and things. ;Clara and Esteban Blanca's mother, Clara del Valle (Meryl Streep) was a child with psychic powers in 1926 when Esteban Trueba (Jeremy Irons) came to propose to Clara's older sister, Rosa del Valle. Even though she was very young—-maybe about 6 years old—-Clara knew she was in love with this man. Esteban left his fiancée with her family to earn money for their wedding. One day, Clara had a vision and told her sister Rosa that there would be an accidental death in the family. The next day, Rosa died in her sleep after drinking poison intended for her father, Senator Severo. Clara blamed herself for her sister's death, and after accidentally witnessing Rosa's autopsy, she decided never to speak again. Esteban was heartbroken. At home, his sister, Férula (Glenn Close) lived and took care of their sick mother. Esteban used the money he earned from mining and bought a hacienda, Tres Marías. He finds many natives living on his land and tells them to work for him for food and shelter. For the next twenty years, Esteban makes Tres Marías an example of a successful Hacienda. One day he rapes a peasant girl, Pancha García (Sarita Choudhury), eventually resulting in the birth of a boy. Esteban spends some nights with Tránsito, a local prostitute (María Conchita Alonso), to whom he lends money so she can start a new career in the capital. Twenty years later, Esteban receives a letter that his mother has died. At her funeral, Esteban notices that Clara, now all grown up but still not speaking, is in attendance with her parents, who are taking care of her. Esteban decides to ask for Clara's hand, despite Férula's protests that Clara is too emotionally unstable and will not take care of him properly. When he shows up at the Del Valle family's house, Clara asks him right away if he has come to ask her to marry him, thus speaking again for the first time in twenty years, much to her family's delight. From there, wedding plans move forward very quickly. Férula meets Clara at a restaurant to talk about her own future, and Clara, sensing Férula's worries, promises that she can live with her and Esteban in Tres Marías after the wedding, and that the two of them will be like sisters. Having never been treated with such warmth and love before, Ferula is overwhelmed by Clara's pure kindness, instantly developing an obsession with her—-not a dangerous kind, but more like a situation where Férula feels a fierce need to protect her. Clara eventually gives birth to a girl as she predicted, and names her Blanca. One day, the girl whom Esteban raped, Pancha García, appears at the family house with Esteban's illegitimate teenage son, Esteban García, and asks for money. Esteban Trueba gives them some money and harshly orders them never to come back, threatening to have his dogs attack them both if they return. His grown son does, however, sneak into the house one day while Clara and Esteban are gone. He approaches young Blanca while she is playing alone, holds her in his lap, and gently caresses her body. He quickly runs out after a few minutes, but this foreshadows dangerous events to come in the future for Blanca. Meanwhile, Clara holds classes for the peasant children and Blanca. Pedro Tercero, the young son of Esteban's foreman Segundo at Tres Marias, befriends Blanca, and the two become playmates. Esteban Trueba does not like his daughter playing with a peasant boy and sends Blanca to a boarding school. ;Blanca and Pedro Tercero After graduating from school, Blanca returns home to Tres Marías and meets with Pedro Tercero (Antonio Banderas) by the river every night. Ferula continues to live with the family and is very close with Clara and Blanca, much to Esteban's annoyance, but he pretty much goes along with it until one night, when an earthquake occurs during one of his political meetings. He worries about Clara and Blanca, goes home to Tres Marías, and finds that Férula has climbed into bed with Clara. He is so angry that he throws Férula out of the house, telling her he will kill her if she ever makes contact with his family again. With tears in her eyes, Férula does leave, but not without cursing Esteban and assuring him that he will be lonely and miserable for the rest of his days. Clara is deeply disappointed that Esteban would kick his sister out of their family home, but Esteban insists that he loves Clara and won't let anyone come between them. One day, Esteban brings the French Count Jean de Satigny (Jan Niklas) to his home, intending to arrange a marriage between him and Blanca. Clara senses that the French "nobleman" is a fraud while reading cards, but Esteban dismisses her folly. While Satigny is still visiting, Esteban catches Pedro preaching revolutionary ideas that are critical of wealthy landowners like Esteban to the peasant workers. Esteban orders the workers to return to work and punishes Pedro with a fierce whipping and banishes him from Tres Marías. That night at dinner, Férula suddenly appears in the house, kisses Clara on the forehead before calmly walking out. Clara tells the rest of the family that Férula has died. Clara and Esteban drive into town to Férula's modest house, where they find her dead on the bed. Clara asks for a moment alone with Ferula to tell her how much she and Blanca miss her, and how proud she would be of Blanca. Pedro returns to Tres Marías to talk to the peasants about their rights and nearly gets shot by Esteban. That night, Count Jean de Satigny, who is visiting again, watches Blanca and Pedro meeting secretly at the river. He reveals Blanca's lover to her father, who immediately drags Blanca back to the house. When Clara tries to persuade him not to be violent, Esteban hits his wife, and she falls. Esteban immediately expresses his regret, but Clara tells him in shock and agony that she will never speak to him again. Clara moves with Blanca to her parents' home in the capital. Esteban offers a large reward for anyone who can reveal Pedro's whereabouts to him. He does get the information he wants from none other than his illegitimate son, whom he does not recognize. Esteban attempts to shoot Pedro, but he gets away, and when his illegitimate son asks for his reward, Esteban refuses. Esteban is furious when he learns that Blanca is pregnant with Pedro's child. He goes to her house and tells her he is arranging a marriage for her to cover up the scandal, but she flatly refuses, at which point Esteban falsely tells her that he already murdered Pedro. Blanca is distraught, and Clara makes Esteban leave. Later, she reassures Blanca that Pedro is indeed alive—-she knows because she dreamed it—-and they won't be reunited for a while because he needs time to flee to a safe place. Blanca asks Clara why she ever married her father, to which she says that she loved him for his strength and courage. Then Clara admits that she still loves him, and despite all he has done, she believes that none of it comes from malice. After some time, Esteban goes to Clara, apologizes for his actions, and asks if he can live with them for a while. She maintains her vow to never speak to him again, but she does allow him to meet their granddaughter Alba, who is about seven years old now, and be a part of their lives again. ;Revolution Esteban is busy with his political career as a senator, but as an old man, he is lonely and finds comfort in the arms of Tránsito, who now runs a high-class prostitution establishment. During the national election, Esteban believes his Conservative Party will win as usual, but the People's Front ends up winning control of the government. Blanca goes out on the street to celebrate and to meet Pedro, now a leading figure in the People's Front. Clara stays home with Alba to decorate the house for Christmas. She appears to have a heart attack, but before she passes away, she gently explains to her granddaughter that she has always been in touch with spirits on the other side, and when she dies, she will be in contact with Alba, as well as the rest of the family. Right before her spirit passes, Clara instructs the little girl to give the diaries she has kept all her life to her mother Blanca, so that "she may understand better how events are related.” Clara's death hits everyone hard, signaling major changes for the whole family. Meanwhile, a conspiracy between some Conservative Party members and the military leads to a coup d'état, and the military takes control of the country. At first, Esteban believes it is good for the country and that the military will hand power back to the Conservative Party, but he soon learns that the military have other plans. Under the control of the military, people associated with the People's Party are captured and even killed. The police ultimately come and arrest Blanca for being with Pedro Tercero. The police grant her a few minutes to say goodbye to her father, at which point Blanca reveals to Esteban that Pedro has been hiding in their house's cellar. She tells Esteban that Pedro is the love of her life, just as Clara was his. She reminds Esteban that he has many influential friends, and while she is gone, she begs him to figure out a plan to get Pedro out of the country, so the three of them can be a family. In the coming days, Blanca is tortured and sexually abused by her half-brother, Esteban García, who had joined the military with his father's help. This is his way of exacting revenge on their father, who loved and protected Blanca throughout her life, but openly rejected his illegitimate son. At this point, it is clear that Esteban's innocent daughter has been left to pay the price for the foolish, selfish choices he made so long ago. Meanwhile, Esteban honors his daughter's wishes and helps Pedro Tercero find exile in Canada. Esteban then turns to Tránsito, now an influential Madam with many connections to high-level military figures, to help free Blanca. One morning, a beaten and raped Blanca finally arrives back at her home, and Esteban is very grateful to see her. He tells her that Pedro is waiting for her and Alba in Canada. He realizes now how wrong he has been, and how deeply his actions have affected his family. Now this is the last truly valuable thing he is giving her in return to help make up for it. ;Epilogue Blanca and Esteban return to Tres Marías with Alba. Esteban is finally visited by Clara's spirit, who has come to help the old man on to the next world. Blanca sits outside and ponders her life, looking forward to a future with Pedro and their daughter. She reflects on how she does not want to live her life with anger or hatred—-instead, she wishes to move forward and be happy. 

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John and Alice (Rutherford) Clayton, Viscount and Lady Greystoke from England, are marooned in the western coastal jungles of equatorial Africa in 1888. Some time later, their son John Clayton II Tarzan of the Apes, Chapter XXV, where the following line (a diary entry by John Clayton, Tarzan's father) appears: "Somehow, even against all reason, I seem to see him a grown man, taking his father's place in the world—the second John Clayton—and bringing added honors to the house of Greystoke." is born. When he is one year old his mother dies, and soon thereafter his father is killed by the savage king ape Kerchak. The infant is then adopted by the she- ape Kala. Clayton is named "Tarzan" ("White Skin" in the ape language) and raised in ignorance of his human heritage. As a boy, feeling alienated from his peers due to their physical differences, he discovers his true parents' cabin, where he first learns of others like himself in their books. Using basic primers with pictures, over many years he teaches himself to read English, but having never heard it, cannot speak it. Upon his return from one visit to the cabin, he is attacked by a huge gorilla which he manages to kill with his father's knife, although he is terribly wounded in the struggle. As he grows up, Tarzan becomes a skilled hunter, exciting the jealousy of Kerchak, the ape leader, who finally attacks him. Tarzan kills Kerchak and takes his place as "king" of the apes. Later, a tribe of black Africans settle in the area, and Tarzan's adopted mother, Kala, is killed by one of its hunters. Avenging himself on the killer, Tarzan begins an antagonistic relationship with the tribe, raiding its village for weapons and practicing cruel pranks on them. They, in turn, regard him as an evil spirit and attempt to placate him. A few years later when Tarzan is 21 years of age, a new party is marooned on the coast, including 19 year old Jane Porter, the first white woman Tarzan has ever seen. Tarzan's cousin, William Cecil Clayton, unwitting usurper of the ape man's ancestral English estate, is also among the party. Tarzan spies on the newcomers, aids them in secret, and saves Jane from the perils of the jungle. Among the party was French naval officer Paul D'Arnot. While rescuing D'Arnot from the natives, a rescue ship recovers the castaways. D'Arnot teaches Tarzan to speak French and offers to take Tarzan to the land of white men where he might connect with Jane again. On their journey, D'Arnot teaches him how to behave among white men. In the ensuing months, Tarzan eventually learns to speak English, as well. Ultimately, Tarzan travels to find Jane in Wisconsin, USA where he rescues her from a fire. Tarzan learns the bitter news that she has become engaged to William Clayton. Meanwhile, clues from his parents' cabin have enabled D'Arnot to prove Tarzan's true identity as John Clayton II, the Earl of Greystoke. Instead of reclaiming his inheritance from William, Tarzan chooses rather to conceal and renounce his heritage for the sake of Jane's happiness. 

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Zoot Suit tells the story of Henry Reyna and the 38th Street Gang, who were tried for the Sleepy Lagoon murder in Los Angeles, during World War II. After a run-in with a neighboring gang at the local lovers lane, Sleepy Lagoon, the 38th Street Gang gets into a fight at a party, where a young man is murdered. Discriminated against for their zoot suit-wearing Chicano identity, twenty-two members of the 38th Street Gang are placed on trial for the murder, found guilty, and sentenced to life in San Quentin prison. Meanwhile, in Los Angeles, Henry's brother Rudy is beaten and stripped of his zoot suit during the Zoot Suit Riots. Through the efforts of George and other lawyers, as well as activist-reporter Alice, with whom Henry has a brief romantic encounter, the boys win their court appeal and are freed. The play ends with a Reyna family reunion as Henry returns home and Rudy is about to leave to join the Marines. The scene suggests that it is not the happy ending we expect, however, as multiple endings of Henry's story are suggested: that he returned to prison and drug abuse, died in the war in Korea and was awarded the Medal of Honor posthumously, or married Della and had five children. 

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The Federation starship Enterprise is summoned to a space station without explanation. Commodore Wesley (Barry Russo) explains that the Enterprise will be a test vessel for the M-5 Multitronic System, a revolutionary tactical and control computer designed by Dr. Richard Daystrom (William Marshall). The M-5 is to handle all ship functions without human assistance. While Science Officer Spock is impressed with M-5, Captain Kirk and Chief Medical Officer Dr. McCoy have doubts. The M-5 succeeds at its first tasks, performing ship functions more quickly and efficiently than a living crew. However, M-5 also exhibits unexpected behavior, such as turning off power and life support to unoccupied parts of the ship, and drawing increased power for unknown reasons; Daystrom maintains M-5 is working properly. In its first tactical drill, M-5 defends the Enterprise against mock attacks from Starships Excalibur and Lexington. The Enterprise is declared the victor, and Wesley jokingly refers to Kirk as "Captain Dunsel", employing a Starfleet Academy slang term for a part serving no useful purpose. Kirk is troubled by this. Some time later, M-5 detects the Woden, an unmanned freighter, and attacks with live torpedoes, destroying it. Kirk orders M-5 taken offline, but on attempting to do so, finds it protected by a powerful force field. Chief Engineer Scott orders Ensign Harper to disconnect its power source, but the M-5 creates a direct connection to the ship's warp engines, vaporizing Harper in the process. Spock and Scott attempt a manual override, but discover that the M-5 has rerouted all controls. Spock questions Daystrom on his computer design, and Daystrom reveals that he has imprinted human engrams onto M-5's circuits, creating what amounts to a human mind operating at the speed of a computer. Meanwhile, four of Enterprise's sister ships, Lexington, Potemkin, Excalibur, and Hood, approach to begin a new tactical drill. Since M-5 has disabled communications, Kirk is unable to warn M-5's targets. M-5 detects the ships, and attacks them with full-strength weapons. The crew watches helplessly as the Enterprise fires on the Lexington, killing 53, and then turns to the Excalibur, killing all aboard and leaving her adrift. Commodore Wesley assumes that Kirk himself is responsible for the attacks, and requests permission from Starfleet Command to destroy the Enterprise. Daystrom, having indicated that the engrams he used were his own, believes he can reason with the M-5, but his conversation with the unit quickly degenerates into a self- pitying lament over his own career disappointments. McCoy warns Kirk that he sees a psychotic episode coming, and as Daystrom begins loudly to proclaim his and his creation's invincibility, Spock subdues him with a Vulcan nerve pinch. Kirk then tries to persuade the M-5 to stop its attacks. The M-5 acknowledges Kirk, who asks M-5 what its purpose is. M-5 responds that its purpose is to protect lives. Kirk rejoins that it acted contrary to its purpose by murdering people. M-5 acknowledges that it has committed murder and must therefore die, and shuts itself down. In so doing, it also cripples the Enterprise. Having received permission to destroy Enterprise, the other Federation ships close in. Since Scott is unable to restore communications immediately, Kirk decides to allow the ship to drift with shields down, hoping that Commodore Wesley will realize that the threat has passed. The gamble pays off as the Commodore orders his ships to stand down at the last moment. 

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The story takes place before and leading up to the events in The Invasion. It is narrated by Elfangor-Sirinial-Shamtul, or, as he is later known, Prince Elfangor, of the alien race known as Andalites. It begins with him uploading his memory into the computer before facing Visser Three at the abandoned construction site. The rest of the book is then a flashback of Elfangor's personal history, beginning with him as an aristh, a warrior in training, and ending with him at the construction site. In 1976, Elfangor and his fellow aristh Arbron (who are aboard the dome ship StarSword) rescue two humans from the Skrit Na: Loren and Hedrick Chapman. They are assigned to return them to Earth under the leadership of a disgraced War-Prince, Alloran-Semitur-Corrass. However, upon realizing the Skrit Na are in possession of the mythical Time Matrix, they are forced to go after it. They find out that the Skrit Na are taking the Time Matrix to the Taxxon home world. Arbron becomes trapped as a Taxxon, and Elfangor becomes responsible for Alloran's infestation when Sub-Visser 7 tricked him. Eventually, Elfangor, Alloran and the Yeerk controlling him, and the humans fall into a black hole. They are forced to use the Time Matrix to escape, which takes them to a fragmented universe created from Elfangor, Loren, and the Yeerk (now Visser Thirty-Two)'s memories. Elfangor and Loren are able to escape to Earth in Loren's own time - although she has aged by several years due to the effect of the Time Matrix - where he permanently morphs into a human and stays in that form. He marries Loren some time later, but just before she gives birth to Tobias, the Ellimist repairs Elfangor's "timeline". Elfangor finds himself in the middle of a battle between his old ship and the Yeerks. The Yeerk ship is being commanded by Visser Thirty-Two - now Visser Three. Elfangor rams the Yeerk ship, almost killing himself, and saves his fellow Andalites. After this he is considered a hero. The story returns to the construction site after Elfangor crashes back on Earth. It is here that he encounters his son Tobias and his four friends. Elfangor breaks the Andalite law and gives the five teenagers the ability to morph. As he dies, he expresses hope for the future. 

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Nineteen-year-old high school student Danny Fisher (Presley) works before and after school to support his surviving family: his father (Dean Jagger) and sister Mimi (Jan Shepard). After Danny's mother died, his grieving father lost his job as a pharmacist, and moved his impoverished family to the French Quarter in New Orleans. Danny protects Ronnie from one of Maxie Field's customers At work one morning, Danny rescues Ronnie (Jones) from her abusive date. After a taxi ride to Danny's high school, Ronnie kisses him. Danny responds to witnessing schoolmates' teasing by kissing Ronnie back and then punching one of them in the face when he makes a teasing remark. Danny is summoned, where Miss Pearson (Helene Hatch), his teacher, tells Principal Evans (Raymond Bailey) that Danny will not graduate because of his poor attitude. Mr. Evans is sympathetic, but powerless to help, so Danny decides to drop out of school to find work, against the wishes of his father, who tries to convince Danny to stay in school. When Danny leaves the school grounds, three young men lure him into an alley. Their leader, Shark (Vic Morrow), wants revenge for Danny hitting the teasing student at school, who turned out to be his brother. Danny defends himself so well that it impresses Shark, so Shark invites Danny to join his gang. Shark then has Danny to help the gang shoplift at a five-and-dime by singing "Lover Doll" to distract the customers and staff. Nellie confesses to Danny that she is willing to see him again Only Nellie (Dolores Hart), who works the snack bar, notices Danny's complicity in the theft, but she does not turn him in. Later that night, Danny meets Ronnie again at The Blue Shade nightclub, where Danny is now employed. At first, she pretends not to know him, as she is accompanied by her boyfriend and the club's owner, Maxie Fields, aka "The Pig" (Matthau). When Maxie does not believe her, she claims she heard Danny sing once. Maxie insists that Danny prove he can sing. His rendition of "Trouble" impresses Charlie LeGrand (Paul Stewart), the honest owner of the King Creole nightclub, the only nightspot in the area not owned by Maxie. Impressed, LeGrand offers Danny a job as a singer at his club. After leaving the club Danny meets up with the Shark gang for his share of the nightly take. He then makes his way to the five and dime at closing time to see Nellie. Danny invites Nellie to a fictitious party in a hotel room. Finding nobody else there, Nellie starts crying in fear and leaves after admitting that she still wants to see Danny again, but not under those conditions. Meanwhile, Mr. Fisher finds employment as a pharmacist in a local drug store, but his boss, Mr. Primont (Gavin Gordon)—who reluctantly hired Mr. Fisher after his boss made him do so—constantly demeans Mr. Fisher out of retaliation, much to Danny's embarrassment. That situation makes it easier for Danny to go against his father's wishes and accept Charlie's job offer. When Danny becomes a hit at the King Creole, Maxie tries to hire him. Danny declines his offer out of loyalty to Charlie. Shark, now working for Maxie, suggests to Danny they beat up Primont to help his father. One night when Mr. Fisher leaves the store dressed in Primont's hat and coat (lent due to a rainstorm), Shark recognizes him, but decides to mug him anyway, as that would be even better for Maxie's purposes. Danny's father is so badly injured that he needs expensive surgery, so Maxie pays for a specialist to perform it. Maxie later blackmails Danny into signing with him by threatening to tell his father about his involvement in the mugging, and then does it anyway. Outraged, Danny pummels Maxie for the betrayal and helps Ronnie escape him. Maxie sends his henchmen after Danny. Shark and another gang member trap him in an alley. Danny knocks out one of his pursuers. Then Shark stabs Danny, but kills himself in the struggle. Ronnie finds a profusely bleeding Danny and takes him to her house on a bayou to recover. She asks him to forget her sordid past and pretend to love her. Danny replies that it would not be difficult and kisses her. Maxie drives up, accompanied by Dummy (Jack Grinnage), a member of Danny's former gang. Maxie fatally shoots Ronnie. Dummy, who had been befriended by Danny, grapples with Maxie. The gun goes off, killing its owner. Danny returns to the King Creole. He sings the lines "Let's think of the future, forget the past, you're not my first love, but you're my last" to Nellie in the audience. Mr Fisher also shows up to listen to his son sing. 

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The main characters of the novel are Florentino Ariza and Fermina Daza. Florentino and Fermina fall in love in their youth. A secret relationship blossoms between the two with the help of Fermina's Aunt Escolástica. They exchange love letters. But once Fermina's father, Lorenzo Daza, finds out about the two, he forces his daughter to stop seeing Florentino immediately. When she refuses, he and his daughter move in with his deceased wife's family in another city. Regardless of the distance, Fermina and Florentino continue to communicate via telegraph. Upon her return, Fermina realizes that her relationship with Florentino was nothing but a dream since they are practically strangers; she breaks off her engagement to Florentino and returns all his letters. A young and accomplished national hero, Dr. Juvenal Urbino, meets Fermina and begins to court her. Despite her initial dislike of Urbino, Fermina gives in to her father's persuasion and the security and wealth Urbino offers, and they wed. Urbino is a physician devoted to science, modernity, and "order and progress". He is committed to the eradication of cholera and to the promotion of public works. He is a rational man whose life is organized precisely and who greatly values his importance and reputation in society. He is a herald of progress and modernization.Morana, Mabel (winter, 1990). "Modernity and Marginality in Love in the Time of Cholera". Studies in Twentieth Century Literature 14:27–43 Even after Fermina's engagement and marriage, Florentino swore to stay faithful and wait for her; but his promiscuity gets the better of him. Even with all the women he is with, he makes sure that Fermina will never find out. Meanwhile, Fermina and Urbino grow old together, going through happy years and unhappy ones and experiencing all the reality of marriage. As an elderly man, Urbino attempts to get his pet parrot out of his mango tree, only to fall off the ladder he was standing on and die. After the funeral Florentino proclaims his love for Fermina once again and tells her he has stayed faithful to her all these years. Hesitant at first because she is only recently widowed, and finding his advances untoward, Fermina eventually gives him a second chance. They attempt a life together, having lived two lives separately for over five decades. Urbino proves in the end not to have been an entirely faithful husband, confessing one affair to Fermina many years into their marriage. Though the novel seems to suggest that Urbino's love for Fermina was never as spiritually chaste as Florentino's was, it also complicates Florentino's devotion by cataloging his many trysts as well as a few potentially genuine loves. By the end, Fermina comes to recognize Florentino's wisdom and maturity, and their love is allowed to blossom during their old age. 

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The film revolves around a special team of trained secret agent animals, equipped with advanced tools that allow the mammalian members to talk to humans. The primary field team consists of guinea pigs Darwin, Blaster, and Juarez, star-nosed mole Speckles (cyber intelligence), and housefly Mooch (Reconnaissance). The unit's leader Ben, orders an unauthorized infiltration of the residence of home electronics and appliances magnate, Leonard Saber, the owner of Saberling Industries, who has been under FBI investigation and also has unseen business partner named Mr. Yanshu (who is believed to have come from Beijing). Saber's appliances all have control chips inside them that will activate a function called Sabersense, allowing electronic communication. The team is able to retrieve sensitive information about a sinister scheme called Clusterstorm (which will cause human extermination) that is set to occur in 48 hours. However, when Ben's superior Kip Killian arrives for his evaluation, his astonishment at the team's capabilities and technology is overcome by his indignation at Ben's unauthorized mission and the fact that the downloaded intelligence appears to be useless information about Saber's coffeemakers. As a result, the government agent orders the unit shut down, the equipment seized and the animals to be used as experimental subjects to be killed. With the help of their human compatriots, Darwin, Juarez, Blaster, Mooch, and Speckles escape with hopes of stopping Saber's scheme, but find themselves in a pet carrying case bound for a pet shop. Ben and his assistant Marcie send a trained cockroach named Harry to infiltrate their hideout (which is now guarded by FBI agents) and recover Darwin's PDA, which contains the information acquired from Saber's computer. Trapped in the store's pet rodent display case, G-Force meets Kazuichi, a laid-back mechanic, Hajime, an irascible hamster, and three sycophantic mice. Although Blaster and Juarez manage to get themselves sold to a family with plans to return to extract their comrades, Speckles' own attempt to escape by playing dead ends disastrously when he is thrown into and seemingly crushed in a garbage truck. Meanwhile, Mooch manages to return to Ben to tell him where his mammalian agents are, but Darwin escapes with Hurley before he can arrive to collect them. While Blaster and Juarez escape their new owners to return to Ben, he and Marcie discover that the discredited intel in the PDA has a destructive computer virus that apparently hid the scheme. At this time, Darwin and Hurley make their own way to their superior. En route, Darwin sees a Saberling coffee maker and decides to investigate it, but his examination of the machine makes it come alive as a dangerous fighting robot (which is similar to a Transformer) that he and Hurley are able to defeat by making it run right into the path of an oncoming SUV. Darwin and Hurley transport the wreckage to Ben using a skateboard. Examining it, they discover that Sabersense and Clusterstorm are both the same scheme and that the chips found inside the appliances actually transforms them into killer robots. Ben eventually confesses the shattering information that they are not special genetically enhanced animals as previously told, but ordinary ones Ben took in and trained for the team; Juarez was a delicacy at a roadside tapas stand in Pyrenees, Blaster was found at a hair and cosmetics lab where a hair gel was being tested for allergic reactions, Speckles was found before his family was killed and his home was destroyed to build a golf course, during which he became blind and had to wear special glasses to help him see, and Darwin was adopted from the pet store after his parents abandoned him because he was the runt of the litter. However, Hurley lifts them from their despair by reminding the team of the astounding feats he has seen them do and the fact that they obviously made themselves extraordinary on their own. He also suggests using the virus in the PDA to take down Saber's computer mainframe. Emboldened but with little time to stop the scheme, Ben provides the field team with the means to infiltrate the Saber residence and plant the virus in the mainframe. Unfortunately, FBI agents are ordered by Killian to capture the animals dead or alive, forcing the team to elude them with an extended pursuit thanks to a high speed vehicle especially designed for them called the Rapid Deployment Vehicle (dubbed the RDV by Darwin) and Mooch acting as their camera in the air. During the chase, one FBI SUV gets trapped by moving trucks, while another SUV crashes into a travel trailer, and the last one gets caught in the middle of a fireworks display, though none of the agents are harmed. After the team infiltrates Saber's mainframe, they encounter a bomb trap but they manage to avoid it because of their size. Meanwhile, Hurley notices a Saberling microwave oven, which transforms and attacks. In an appliance store, all of the machines also transform into killing machines and begin combining with each other. The microwave then tries to kill the 3 guinea pigs. The team take on the monster until it is destroyed by the bomb trap, and the resulting battle separates the group, leaving only Darwin and Mooch to take the mainframe down. At the same time, Leonard Saber is shocked to discover that his appliances have become killing machines, expecting them to simply be able to effectively communicate with each other. Meanwhile, Killian leads his men to take advantage of this obvious pretext to finally openly move against the industrialist. Ben and Marcie arrive at the scene and they watch Darwin trying to infiltrate the mainframe and shut it down. When Darwin reaches the mainframe, he finds out that Speckles, who actually faked his death and somehow obtained another pair of glasses after his original one was taken away earlier, is the mastermind of the plot and is also the mysterious Mr. Yanshu (the name Yanshu 鼴鼠 means mole in Chinese). Speckles explains the purpose of Clusterstorm: to cause a massive planetwide bombardment of space debris pulled from orbit to make the planet surface uninhabitable, admitting that he snuck into Saber's base, manipulated Saber into planting the control chips into the appliances, and used Sabersense as a cover up for his plan, and reveals that he was the one who sabotaged G-Force's presentation to ensure that they didn't find out about his sinister plot. He also explains that the reason behind his plot is because he wants revenge on the human race for the death of his family, having been persuaded by his father to do so. Speckles promptly amalgamates the various appliances in the vicinity into a giant walking robot, which, combined with a localized bombardment of orbital debris, soon overpowers the police force and grabs the command truck with Marcie, Killian, Saber, and Ben inside. During the fight, Speckles summons one of his robots (that is a blender) to kill Darwin (who loses his parachute and the PDA in the process), but Darwin manages to persuade Speckles that his new family is with the rest of the team and Ben, who had taken them all in, and will lose what he has left if he kills them. Speckles concedes, and realizing that he has gone too far, tries to shut it down, but he has out of control and the machines continue their onslaught. Darwin uses the virus on his PDA (which was recovered by Mooch earlier) to take it down, destroying the robot and nearly killing Hurley while the FBI take Saber into custody. The guinea pigs are personally commended by the FBI Director who also appoints them special agents of the FBI. Furthermore, G-Force is reinstated as a unit of the Bureau and expanded with Hurley, Bucky, and the mice inducted as new recruits. Meanwhile, Saber makes the largest product recall in history; Speckles is given the punitive duty of personally removing the malicious chips from all Saber appliances, which number into the tens of thousands, before rejoining the team; and Agent Killian is relocated to an FBI base in the South Pole as punishment for trying to arrest G-Force. 

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The story opens with a fictional rendition of the Namamugi Incident. On September 14, 1862, Phillip Tyrer, John Canterbury, Angelique Richaud, and Malcolm Struan are riding on the Tōkaidō, when they are attacked by Shorin Anato and Ori Ryoma, both Satsuma samurai and rōnin shishi in the sonnō jōi movement, cells of revolutionary xenophobic idealists. Canterbury is killed, Malcolm seriously wounded, and Tyrer receives a minor arm injury; only Angelique escapes back to Yokohama unharmed to get help. Tyrer and Malcolm make their way to Kanagawa (Kanagawa-ku) later that day, where Dr. Babcott operates on Malcolm. Meanwhile, at a village inn in Hodogaya the daimyō Sanjiro of Satsuma, meets with Katsumata, one of his advisors, and receives Ori and Shorin, with whom he plots an overthrow of the current Shogunate. Two days later Malcolm is moved to the merchants' settlement in Yokohama. He is not expected to last long and while he is in bed sick, he shows his emotions for Angelique, a voluptuous but penniless French girl. The novel spins two story lines which intertwine with ever increasing complexity: one follows the "gaijin" (foreign) community in Yokohama, the other, the Japanese, both the government (Bakufu) run by a Council of Elders who advise the young Shōgun, and the anti-government, xenophobic, pro-Emperor forces, focusing on the "shishi". The Japanese distrust the foreigners only slightly more than they distrust each other. The various nationalities that make up the foreign community likewise plot against and socialise with each other warily. Both Japanese and foreigners are convinced of their own superiority. While Malcolm slowly recovers from his wounds and falls in love with Angelique, she is raped by one of the Japanese samurai assassins, Ori Ryoma, as she lies sedated to treat her shock. Horrified, she keeps this a secret but later discovers she is pregnant. Desperate, she obtains Chinese medicine that precipitates an abortion, with the help of a French spy who later blackmails her with this knowledge. At the same time, she learns her father is a degenerate gambler in jail for debt, and her uncle loses her capital in a failed investment. Marriage to the infatuated Malcolm seems increasingly attractive but she must keep her rape an absolute secret. Obsessed with her, Ori rapes her again. This time, Angelique is not drugged, but she yields and tricks Ori into leaving afterwards instead of killing her, as she knew he intended. He is shot outside her window but no-one suspects he was leaving; it is rumored that he was trying to break in. Yoshi Toranaga, a descendant of Lord Toranaga in Shogun and one of the Council of Elders, narrowly escapes various assassination attempts while he tries to out manoeuvre his fellow councilors, all of whom mistrust each other, as well as hunt down the rogue shishi. He hates the foreigners as passionately as the shishi do, but recognizes that their superior military technology makes sonnō jōi impossible for the present. This position puts him at odds with almost everyone around him. A meeting is arranged between the council and the representatives of the foreign community to deal with their demands for reparations and justice for the murderous attack, only one of several such incidents. Despite much Japanese prevarication, and the three-way interpreting necessary (English–Dutch–Japanese), a deal is struck. Malcolm Struan is heir to the Noble House of Struan's, but he is not yet of age and therefore technically not yet "taipan". Meanwhile, his mother, Tess Struan, runs the business and urges him to return to Hong Kong and give up his infatuation with this unsuitable penniless French "gold-digger". Her imperious attitude angers him and he resists, determined to marry Angelique and be taipan. The brothels of Yokohama are where Japanese and foreigners meet. The French spy is besotted with a Japanese prostitute, whose Madame is associated with the "shishi" and who exchanges favours for information. The French spy introduces Tyrer to the delights and protocols of Japanese brothels. Later, Tyrer befriends a young Japanese and they begin to teach each other, although, unbeknownst to Tyrer, the Japanese is a fanatical "shishi". He gradually adopts the same position as Lord Yoshi, his implacable enemy: the only way to purge Japan of these revolting barbarians is to learn their military and technological secrets. Malcolm marries Angelique irregularly on board ship, but dies on their wedding night when his wound hemorrhages. His mother is now officially taipan. Angelique is at first hysterical and nearly goes mad. When she recovers, she find she has gained wisdom and an icy calm and lost all fear. She plans to outwit Tess Struan, with the help of Edward Gornt, who hopes to marry her and also obtain revenge on Tess' family. Tyrer discovers his "friend" is a dangerous assassin wanted by Lord Yoshi and must be handed over as part of a deal, but the shishi disappears. He hides out with his "sensei" and others in the brothel district. As the government samurai close their net, the sensei decides on a suicide mission: to set fire to the Yokohama settlement and sink the largest foreign ship in the harbour. Tyrer's friend is horrified but cannot disobey. The firebombs go off, the shishi saves Tyrer's life while the French spy dies in the flames. Though the brothel district and native village are destroyed, the foreign settlement and military camp are relatively undamaged, so the foreigners do not leave, thus subverting the purpose of the arson. To escape certain death and also to further his study of the source of foreign power, the shishi gets himself shipped off to England with Tyrer's help. The story closes with a brief narration of the bombardment of Kagoshima and its aftermath. 

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In 1807, during the Napoleonic Wars, Royal Navy Captain Horatio Hornblower commands the 38-gun frigate HMS Lydia on a secret mission to Central America. He is to provide arms and support to a megalomaniac named Don Julian Alvarado, who calls himself "El Supremo" ("The Almighty"), in his rebellion against Spain, an ally of Britain's enemy France. Upon arrival, Hornblower is told that a larger, much more powerful Spanish warship, the 60-gun Natividad, has been sighted. When it anchors nearby, Hornblower and his crew board and capture it in a surprise night attack. He then reluctantly hands the ship over to Alvarado to appease the madman, and they go their separate ways. Later, he encounters a small Spanish vessel and learns that Spain has switched sides, so the Lydia will have to attack the Natividad again. Two passengers transfer to the Lydia (over Hornblower's objections): Lady Barbara Wellesley and her maid, fleeing a yellow fever epidemic. As Lady Barbara is the (fictitious) sister of the Duke of Wellington, Hornblower cannot refuse her request for passage to England. Using superior seamanship and masterful tactics, Hornblower sinks the more powerful Natividad. When the ship's surgeon is killed during the battle, Lady Barbara insists on tending the wounded. When she later falls gravely ill, Hornblower nurses her back to health. On the voyage back to England, they fall in love. However, when she speaks of her feelings (although she is engaged), Hornblower gently tells her he is married. Later they meet in a passageway and embrace passionately. She promises her maid’s discretion, he says that they are not free. After arriving home, Hornblower learns that his wife has died in childbirth, leaving him an infant son. Later, he is given command of the Sutherland, a 74-gun ship of the line captured from the French, and is assigned to a squadron commanded by Rear Admiral Leighton (Denis O'Dea), an arrogant officer who owes his position to influence more than skill. Leighton has just returned from his honeymoon with Lady Barbara. Outside the Admiralty, Lady Barbara tells Hornblower that she did not learn of his wife’s death until she returned from Ireland. Leighton’s squadron is to help enforce the British blockade against Napoleonic France. Hornblower learns that four French ships of the line have broken through the blockade. Leighton assumes they will make for the Mediterranean, but Hornblower suggests that they mean to support Napoleon's campaign on the Iberian Peninsula. Leighton decides to cover both possibilities by detaching one ship to patrol the French coast. When he learns that Hornblower's Sutherland is best suited for this task, having the shallowest draught, he accuses Hornblower of pursuing glory and prize money and expressly forbids Hornblower’s taking any independent action if he sights the French. Hornblower's French-built ship is subsequently mistaken for a friendly vessel by a small French brig, which flies the enemy's recognition signal for the day. After capturing the vessel, Hornblower learns from its captain that he was transporting powder, beef and oats to the four warships for use in Spain. Rather than return to the squadron, Hornblower enters the enemy harbour where the French ships are anchored and guarded by a well-armed fort. By flying a French flag and the recognition signal and taking advantage of his ship's French design, Hornblower fools the garrison into believing that the Sutherland is friendly. His gun crews dismast all four enemy ships before French cannon fire forces the British to abandon ship. Hornblower scuttles his ship in the channel, bottling up the French ships. As the rest of the British squadron arrives to complete the job, Hornblower, First Lieutenant Bush, and seaman Quist are taken by carriage to Paris to be tried for piracy. However, they escape en route and make their way to the port of Nantes. Disguised as Dutch officers, they board the Witch of Endor, a captured British ship. They overpower the skeleton crew, free a working party of British prisoners of war to man her, and sail away to freedom. Hornblower is hailed as a national hero and learns that Leighton was killed in the battle. Hornblower returns home to visit his young son and finds Lady Barbara there. The two embrace. 

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According to the Vectrex manual, the story involves "protecting your comrades from alien ships trying to infiltrate your culture" and "defending the sovereignty of your planet." 

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Ammonite is the story of Marghe Taishan, an anthropologist and employee of a government agency, the Settlement and Education Councils (SEC). She is sent as an SEC representative to the planet Jeep (Grenchstom's Planet – "Jeep" being the pronunciation of the abbreviation "GP"). Centuries in the past, Jeep was colonized by people from Earth, but contact was lost with the colony, and now the planet is a target for recolonization by the sinister Durallium Company (mostly referred to as "Company"). Some years prior to the beginning of the story, Company sent an expedition of technical and security personnel (the latter called "Mirrors" for the mirrored helmets on their combat armor) to the planet; a short time later, all of the men and many of the women in the expedition died from a virus, also known as Jeep, which was endemic to the planet. As a result, the planet was placed under quarantine, and none of the surviving members of the expedition have been allowed to leave. One of the mysteries of the planet is that there is a "native" population, entirely female and apparently descended from the original colony. Marge is sent to Jeep not only to study the native cultures, but also to test a potential vaccine for the Jeep virus. She makes a journey across Jeep, living with several of its indigenous cultures. Shortly after the start of her journey, she is captured and enslaved by the nomadic Echraidhe, one of whose members, Uaithne, believes herself to be the Death Spirit, the chosen representative of the goddess of death destined to bring about an apocalypse. Escaping the Echraidhe and almost dying in the extreme winter, she reaches the quieter village of Ollfoss, where she joins a family and stops taking the vaccine, accepting the virus into her body and truly learning what it is like to be a native (including how the natives are able to conceive children). She learns the mystic discipline of "deepsearch", and eventually becomes a "viajera", or traveling wise woman. Afterward, she is forced to the center of a conflict between the Mirrors and the Echraidhe under the leadership of Uaithne. Marghe stops the conflict, but shortly thereafter Company, believing the vaccine to have been a failure, destroys the space station orbiting Jeep, apparently isolating the people there. However, Marghe and the Mirrors believe that the Company will probably return one day, a return they must prepare for. Adaptation to life on Jeep appears to be a greater theme of Griffith's novel, as not only Marghe, but other Company personnel, also eventually are forced to settle on Jeep and adapt to the cultures that its prior colonists have created, in order to adjust to the planetary environment. 

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The story follows an anthropomorphic Jack Russell Terrier named Olive. While in town, she meets Martini, a con artist penguin from whom she buys a counterfeit Rolex watch. When she returns home she finds her owner, Tim, sad that there "won't be any Christmas". Olive discovers that Blitzen, one of Santa's reindeer, is injured and unable to fly. Santa expresses in a radio interview that Christmas isn't cancelled if his sleigh can be pulled by "all of the other reindeer". Olive's pet flea, Fido, mishears this as "Olive the other reindeer", and Olive becomes convinced that it is she Santa is referring to, prompting her to travel to the North Pole to help pull the sleigh. On the way to the bus station, Olive runs into a disgruntled Postman who is frustrated by having to deliver mail during the Christmas period, and expresses that he is glad Christmas might be cancelled. He learns Olive is trying to save Santa's flight, and is determined to stop Olive from saving Christmas. Olive goes to the bus station to buy a ticket to Arctic Junction. Martini shows up and Olive buys him a bus ticket, but before they can leave the station, Olive is captured by the Postman, who abducts her, claiming she is wanted for mail fraud. After she pleads for Martini's help, Martini trips the Postman, allowing Martini and Olive to catch the bus. On the bus, Olive and Martini talk to an Inuit couple and bus driver Richard. They believe Olive misheard Santa, but wish her luck. The Postman pulls up next to the bus in his mail truck, but Martini makes a paper airplane, tells him, "Deliver this, punk!" and throws it at the Postman, knocking him off the road. When they arrive at Arctic Junction, they must wait for the next bus, so they go to a restaurant. The Postman, disguised as their waitress, lures Olive outside by stating that Santa is waiting for her. The Postman throws Olive into his truck, and while he is driving away, Olive finds a package addressed to her from "Deus Ex Machina" containing a metal file that Olive uses to escape. Olive returns to the Junction, and Martini and Richard, having discovered the Postman's actions, ask her how she got away. Olive and Martini, having missed the bus, go inside a nearby bar and are initially harassed by the bar's patrons, including bar owner Round John Virgin. Olive stands up to them, giving a speech about the meaning of Christmas. The patrons apologize for their behavior and Round John Virgin offers Martini and Olive a ride to the North Pole. At the North Pole, Olive is denied entry, but Martini distracts the guard, allowing Olive to get inside and look for Santa. Aside from Blitzen's injury, Santa is unsure about going out for Christmas, due to having received mean-spirited letters addressed from children. Olive convinces Santa that the letters are from the Postman, and persuades Santa not to give up on Christmas; Santa thanks Olive, and she joins the other reindeer in order to fly the sleigh. Before they leave, the Postman switches the bag of toys with a bag of junk mail and kidnaps Martini. Later, Santa discovers what happened, and Olive follows the Postman's scent to track him down. Olive struggles with the Postman, and Martini scares the Postman with a jack-in-the- box, and he hits his head and is knocked unconscious. They retrieve the presents, rescue Martini, and then deliver the presents to the world. Santa gets lost in fog, and Olive guides the sleigh back to the North Pole by following the scent of cookies baked by Mrs. Claus. Comet gives Olive a ride home and she makes amends with Tim, who is happy to see her. The Postman is bound with packing tape and fitted with cardboard "wings" and put in the penguin exhibit in the zoo in Martini's place, while Martini is now in charge of the mail. 

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An ivory fan depicting scenes from The Story of the Western Wing in the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco. The play has twenty-one acts in five parts. It tells the story of a secret love affair between Zhang Sheng, a young scholar, and Cui Yingying, the daughter of a chief minister of the Tang court. The two first meet in a Buddhist monastery. Yingying and her mother have stopped there to rest while escorting the coffin of Yingying's father to their native town. Zhang Sheng falls in love with her immediately, but is prevented from expressing his feelings while Yingying is under her mother's watchful eye. The most he can do is express his love in a poem read aloud behind the wall of the courtyard in which Yingying is lodging. However, word of Yingying's beauty soon reaches Sun the Flying Tiger, a local bandit. He dispatches ruffians to surround the monastery, in the hopes of taking her as his consort. Yingying's mother agrees that whoever drives the bandits away can have Yingying's hand in marriage, so Zhang Sheng contacts his childhood friend General Du, who is stationed not far away. The general subdues the bandits, and it seems that Zhang Sheng and Cui Yingying are set to be married. However, Yingying's mother begins to regret her rash promise to Zhang Sheng, and takes back her word, with the excuse that Yingying is already betrothed to the son of another high official of the court. The two young lovers are greatly disappointed, and begin to pine away with their unfulfilled love. Fortunately, Yingying's maid, Hongniang, takes pity on them, and ingeniously arranges to bring them together in a secret union. When Yingying's mother discovers what her daughter has done, she reluctantly consents to a formal marriage on one condition: Zhang must travel to the capital and pass the civil service examination. To the joy of the young lovers, Zhang Sheng proves to be a brilliant scholar, and is appointed to high office. The story thus ends on a happy note, as the two are finally married. 

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The play concerns the Battle of Granada, fought between the Moors and the Spanish, which led to the historic fall of Granada. The Spanish are kept generally in the background, and the action mainly concerns two factions of Moors, the Abencerrages and the Zegrys. The hero is Almanzor, who fights for the Moors. He falls in love with Almahide, who is engaged to Boabdelin, king of the Moors. She loves him, too, but she will not betray her vows to Boabdelin, and Boabdelin is torn between his jealousy and need for Almanzor. Almanzor and Almahide remain separated until the death of Boabdelin in the last act, when impediments are removed and the forbearing lovers can be united. There are two other crossed love plots in the play as well. Abdalla, brother of king Boabdelin, and Abdelmelich, the head of the Abencerrage faction, vie in love for the hand of Lyndaraxa, the sister of the leader of the Zegrys. Also, Ozmyn, a young Abencerrage man, loves Benzayda, a Zegry. It turns out during the play that Almanzor is the lost son of the Duke of Arcos, a Spaniard, but he fights for the Moors out of duty. 

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For Christmas, Carl gives Homer a DVD player and the first season of Magnum, P.I. with commentary by John Hillerman. However, Homer forgets he is Lenny's secret Santa and gives him a pack of Certs out of desperation. Instead of giving bonuses, Mr. Burns gives everyone a cafeteria voucher and Homer a Joe DiMaggio rookie baseball card for Bart. To get money for Christmas shopping, Homer gives the card to Comic Book Guy, who gives Homer everything in his cash register. With their small fortune, the Simpsons go shopping at the Springfield Heights Promenade. Homer promises to buy a massive Christmas tree that will cause mudslides and flooding when it is removed, but he instead spends the tree money on a Personalized Talking Astrolabe for himself. Homer gets shunned by his family when they find out, and becomes even more depressed when he finds out that the Astrolabe cannot be exchanged. While staying up late at night, Homer watches Mr. McGrew's Christmas Carol. There, he realizes just how selfish he is. Homer decides to reform his ways and become the nicest guy in town. Homer's acts include giving hobos his old clothes, giving Lenny a photo cube, giving Marge the last pork chop (causing her to break down in tears of joy) and building a skating rink in the Simpsons' backyard (to the delight of Comic Book Guy). After Gil Gunderson's comment of "Homer, you're the nicest man in town!", and Nelson Muntz's comment of "Haha! Your position has been usurped!", the actions cause jealousy to stir in Ned Flanders. Flanders finds himself barely able to control his anger. He decides to buy everyone in town a Christmas present (and gets the money by renting out his house to a fraternity). Homer begins to think of beating Flanders by buying everyone a car. However, Lisa tells him not to and that, as a Buddhist, she believes people would be happier without presents. Homer gets the idea to do the ultimate good deed: steal Christmas. In the morning, an angry mob confronts Homer. The mob calms down when they see a star which they think is a sign from God; it is actually a flare from a trapped Hans Moleman. Homer gives everyone back their presents and the entire town sings Hark! The Herald Angels Sing. During the carol, however, Snake steals Homer's Astrolabe. 

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The musical involves special envoy Nina Yaschenko, who is dispatched from the Soviet Union to rescue three foolish commissars from the pleasures of Paris. Romanced by theatrical agent Steven Canfield, she eventually comes to recognize the virtues of capitalist indulgence. Other characters include Peter Boroff, Russia's greatest composer, who is being wooed by Janice Dayton, America's swimming sweetheart, to write the score for her first non-aquatic picture, a musical adaptation of War and Peace. 

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Angel's Egg follows the life of an unnamed young girl living alone in an undefined building near an abandoned city. She cares for a large egg which she hides under her dress, protecting it while scavenging the decrepit Neo-Gothic/Art Nouveau cityscape for food, water and bottles. In the prologue, an unnamed boy in militant garb watches an orb-shaped vessel covered with thousands of goddess-like sculptures descend from the sky. Awakened by the orb's whistles, the girl begins her day of scavenging, but soon crosses paths with the boy on a wide street traveled only by biomechanical roving tanks. Frightened by the boy, who carries a cross-shaped device over his shoulder, the girl runs off down an alley. When she returns to investigate, the boy has left. She resumes searching for food and glass bottles, avoiding the statuesque figures of men clutching harpoons. Later, the girl spots the boy again and approaches him. He turns and surprisingly produces her egg from underneath his cape; she had abandoned it on the plaza where she was eating. He instructs the girl to "Keep precious things inside you or you will lose them," and returns the egg. When asked what she believes is inside the egg, the girl asserts that she can't tell him. The boy then suggests breaking the egg to find out, which incenses the girl and drives her away, only to be pursued by the boy. Eventually the chase gives way to the pair bonding, as the stoic fishermen figures spring to life and frighten the girl. The fishermen race after enormous shadows of coelacanth-like fish that swim across the surfaces of streets and buildings. The animated men ineffectually lob their harpoons at the shadows, hitting only brick and stone. As the shadows swim away, the girl explains that while the fish are gone, the men persist in hunting. The pair wait out the commotion within a vast cathedral decorated with stained windows of fish. Leaving the city and heading towards the girl's settlement, the pair stop within a massive structure which appears to be the carcass of a beached leviathan. Noticing an engraving of a tree on a pillar, the boy describes his memory of a similar tree which grew to hold a giant egg containing a sleeping bird. When the girl inquires as to what the bird dreams of, the boy flatly asks if the girl still won't tell him what's inside her egg. The pair ascend a staircase arrayed with bottles of water, like those the girl collects, on each step. Adding her newest tribute to the line of bottles, the girl and boy reflect on their amnesia, wondering about their identity and purpose. The boy begins to recount the biblical tale of Noah's Ark. The tale deviates when the boy claims that the dove never returned to the ark, and thus its passengers forgot why they were sailing, forgot about the civilization drowned below, forgot about the animals who, as a result, turned to stone. The boy asks the girl if they themselves or if the strange world they live in really exists, or if it is merely a memory like his image of the sleeping bird. The girl suddenly insists that the bird does exist, and leads the boy down corridors of ancient fossils to arrive at an aerie. There they find the skeleton of a giant, angelic bird. The girl explains her intent to hatch the egg. Later, the pair warm themselves within the girl's settlement. As the girl drifts off to sleep, she speaks to the creature inside her egg of their future together. Outside, the heavy rain consumes the city and floods the streets. While the girl is turned away from the egg in her sleep, the boy takes it and smashes it, leaving afterwards. The next day, the girl discovers the broken shell of her egg and shrieks out, utterly heartbroken. She starts to run away from her settlement into the woods, past a giant tree holding a huge egg, in pursuit of the boy. In her haste, she falls into a ravine. Beneath the chasm's water, the girl transforms into an adult woman before releasing a final breath, which rises to the surface as a multitude of bobbing eggs. As the rain suddenly abates, trees holding eggs like those described by the boy are shown to be scattered throughout the landscape. The boy stands on a vast shore littered with white feathers as the orb-like vessel rises from underneath the ocean. Among the thousands of statues adorning the orb is a new feature: a figure of the girl, sitting serenely on a throne and caressing the egg in her lap. The screen slowly zooms out to reveal that the land of the beach, the forest, and the city is part of a small and lonely island within a vast sea, appearing not unlike the hull of an overturned ship. 

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Fat Pizza the film is yet another slice of life at a dodgy suburban Sydney take away. Bobo Gigliotti, who lives with his mother, is a psychotic pizzeria owner/pizza chef who is awaiting the arrival of his mail-order refugee bride Lin Chow Bang, and a new pizza deliverer is on the block. In the end, a group of biker thugs arrive at the new deliverers shop and threaten to murder everyone. 

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Conan and his companion, the thief Malak, are confronted by Queen Taramis of Shadizar. She tests their combat ability with several of her guards. Satisfied, she tells Conan that she has a quest for him. He refuses her, but when she promises to resurrect his lost love, Valeria, Conan agrees to the quest. He is to escort the Queen's niece, Princess Jehnna, a virgin, who is destined to restore the jeweled horn of the dreaming god Dagoth; a magic gem must first be retrieved that will locate the horn. Conan and Malak are joined by Bombaata, the captain of Taramis's guard. Bombaata has secret orders to kill Conan once the gem is obtained. The gem is secured in the fortress of a powerful wizard, so Conan seeks the help of his friend, Akiro, the Wizard of the Mounds. Akiro has been captured by a tribe of cannibals, and must first be rescued. The adventurers encounter Zula, a powerful bandit warrior being tortured by vengeful villagers. Freeing Zula at Jehnna's request, Conan accepts the indebted warrior's offer to join their quest. The adventurers travel to the castle of Thoth-Amon, where the gem is located. As they camp for the night, the wizard takes the form of a giant bird and kidnaps Jehnna. The others wake in time to see the bird enter the castle. Sneaking in through a water gate, they search the castle, but Conan is separated from the group, and the others are forced to watch him battle a fierce man-beast. Conan mortally wounds the creature, which is revealed as another form of Thoth-Amon. With the wizard's death, the castle begins to disintegrate, forcing the group's hasty retreat. They are ambushed by Taramis's guards, but drive them off. Bombaata feigns ignorance about the attack. The gem reveals the location of the jeweled horn. Jehnna expresses romantic interest in Conan, but he rebuffs her and declares his devotion to Valeria. They reach an ancient temple, where the horn is secured. Jehnna obtains it while Akiro deciphers engravings. He learns that Jehnna will be ritually sacrificed to awaken Dagoth. They are attacked by the priests who guard the horn. A secret exit is revealed, but Bombaata blocks the others' escape and seizes Jehnna. Despite this treachery, Conan and his allies escape from the priests and trek to Shadizar to rescue Jehnna. Malak shows them a secret route to the throne room. Conan confronts Bombaata and kills him in combat. Zula impales the Grand Vizier before he can sacrifice Jehnna. The rising Dagoth becomes distorted from a human statue into a monstrous entity. He kills Taramis, then attacks Conan. Zula and Malak join the fight, but are effortlessly swept aside by him. Grappling with the monster, Conan tears out Dagoth's horn, weakening Dagoth enough to kill him. The newly crowned Queen Jehnna offers each of her companions a place in her new court: Zula will be the new captain of the guard, Akiro the queen's advisor, and Malak the court jester. Jehnna offers Conan marriage and the opportunity to rule the kingdom with her, but he declines and departs to find further adventures and his own place in the world. 

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Lin McAdam and 'High- Spade' Frankie Wilson, on the trail of a man named Dutch Henry Brown with whom Lin has a personal score to settle, arrive in Dodge City, Kansas just in time to see a man forcing a saloon-hall girl named Lola Manners (Shelley Winters) onto the stagecoach leaving town. Lin confronts the man but backs down once he learns that he is standing up to Sheriff Wyatt Earp (Will Geer). Earp informs the two men that firearms are not allowed in town and they must check them in with Earp's brother Virgil. Lin and Dutch lay eyes on each other in the saloon, but are unable to fight due to the persuasive presence of Earp. Lin enters a shooting contest, competing against Dutch, and many others. They end up the two finalists for a highly coveted "One of One Thousand" Winchester 1873 rifle. Lin wins by betting that he can shoot through a stamp placed over the hole of a round piece from an Indian necklace. After losing, Dutch claims that he is leaving town, but instead goes to Lin's room at the boarding house, ambushes him and steals the rifle. Dutch and his two cohorts leave town with Lin and High-Spade in hot pursuit. Dutch and his compatriots ride to Riker's Bar. Because they left town in a hurry, they did not retrieve their guns from Earp. This puts them in a bad position because of the Indians in the area. When Indian trader Joe Lamont (John McIntire) sees the perfect Winchester rifle, he is determined to get it and raises the price of his supply of purchasable weapons high enough that Dutch and his men cannot afford them. Dutch's only option is to trade the perfect rifle for Lamont's three hundred dollars in gold and their choice of weapons from the pile that Lamont is going to sell to the Indians. Dutch has been consistently losing to the trader playing cards, but decides to lay down one more bet – the three hundred in gold – in a last-ditch attempt to regain the rifle. He loses. Lamont takes his guns to meet his Indian buyers, but their leader Young Bull (Rock Hudson) doesn't like the old, worn-out merchandise he is offered; he wants the guns that Crazy Horse used at the Battle of the Little Bighorn. Young Bull sees the perfect Winchester and wants it. When Lamont refuses to sell, he is robbed and scalped. Shelley Winters and James Stewart Lola and her fiancé Steve Miller (Charles Drake) are in a wagon heading to the site of their new home. The left rear wheel of the wagon is squeaking loudly because Steve forgot to grease it back in town. As they are pursued by Young Bull and his warriors, the wheel slows the wagon to the point where it becomes clear they will not be able to outrun the Indians. Panicking, Steve jumps on his horse and rides off, claiming he is going ahead to find help; Lola is stranded. Not far along, however, Steve sees a small encampment of soldiers and goes back to retrieve her. Lin and High-Spade, chased by the same Indians, ride into the encampment that night. The soldiers are new to the territory and have no experience fighting Indians. Lin gives their sergeant (Jay C. Flippen) tactical advice and they prepare for an attack they expect early the next morning. When the morning comes, Lin gives Lola his revolver, and implies that she should commit suicide with the final bullet to avoid capture. After a fierce battle, the Indian leader is killed. When everything is over, Lin and High-Spade leave to continue their search for Dutch; they ride past the Winchester where Young Bull had dropped it when he fell. It is found by Doan (Tony Curtis) and the Sergeant who, not wanting the young soldier to lose the gun to an officer, gives it to Steve. Screenshot of Stewart Steve and Lola reach the Jameson house, which is set to become theirs. He wants her to stay there with Mrs. Jameson and her two small children while he goes to meet Waco Johnnie Dean, much to the disapproval of Lola. Waco (Dan Duryea) and his men show up at the Jameson house unexpectedly, on the run from a posse led by Sheriff Noonan (Ray Teal). Once Waco sees the Winchester, he covets it. He repeatedly insults Steve in an attempt to provoke him into a gunfight. Steve draws his gun and Waco kills him. Waco and Lola escape the posse and ride to Dutch's hideout. There, Dutch manages to take custody of the rifle by suggesting that if Waco does not return it, Dutch will deny the outlaw a partnership in an armed robbery he is planning in Tascosa, Texas. After everyone is filled in as to their role in the crime, they make their way to the town. Waco is stationed in a saloon to provide cover for the gang's escape after the robbery. In the meantime, Lin and High-Spade have arrived. Lola warns Lin about Waco. Lin uses violence to force Waco to agree to take him to Dutch. Waco attempts to shoot Lin and Lin kills him, while around them the robbery goes awry and Lola is wounded. High-Spade reveals to Lola that Dutch is Lin's brother and that he killed their father. Lin follows Dutch out of town, confronting him on a rocky hill and calling him by his real name, Matthew. They shoot it out on the hill with rifles before Lin finally finishes the stand-off with a bullet that causes Dutch to fall from the hill. High-spade tells Lola that Dutch robbed a bank and a stagecoach and ran back to the family home, looking to hide out. When their father refused to help him, Dutch shot him in the back. Lin swore revenge on his brother. Exhausted, Lin returns to town with the Winchester and Dutch's body. Lola runs to him and he puts his arm around her. Lin and High- Spade look down at the silver plate on the rifle in Lin’s other hand. 

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Ka-Kui is the "supercop" of the Hong Kong police, with amazing martial arts skills. He is sent to Guangzhou, where the Chinese police force's Interpol director, Inspector Jessica Yang (Michelle Yeoh), briefs him on his next assignment. The target is Chaibat, a drug lord based in Hong Kong. To infiltrate Chaibat's organization, Ka-Kui is to get close to Chaibat's henchman Panther, who is in a Chinese prison. Ka-Kui, posing as a petty criminal prisoner, manages Panther's escape with the connivance of the guards. Grateful, Panther invites Ka-Kui to go with him to Hong Kong and join Chaibat's gang. Panther meets up with some of his other men, and vouches for Ka-Kui. The group heads for Hong Kong. On the way, they pass through Ka-Kui's supposed home village, and Panther insists that Ka-Kui visit his family there. He does not actually know anyone in the village, but is pleasantly relieved to be greeted by undercover police posing as his family, with Yang as his sister. The local police pretend to arrest Ka-Kui in a restaurant, but Ka-Kui and Yang (also a martial-arts expert) escape after a big fight, which concludes with the faked killing of a policeman. This confirms Panther's trust in them. In Hong Kong, Chaibat welcomes Ka-Kui and Yang to his luxurious hide-out. He takes them with him to a big opium grower's fortified compound in the Golden Triangle of Thailand, for a meeting of big-time heroin traffickers. During the meeting, Chaibat's gang attack from outside while Ka-Kui and Yang protect him inside. In a huge gun battle, Chaibat's gang kill the rival traffickers and their guards, and smash up the compound. The grower survives, but will now sell only to Chaibat at Chaibat's price. The action then shifts to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, where Chaibat's wife, Chen Wen-Shi, is in prison, facing the death penalty for an unspecified crime. Chaibat needs to get her out of prison, because only she knows the secret codes to his Swiss bank account, and will not reveal them to him unless freed. Chaibat brings his gang, now including Ka-Kui and Yang, to Kuala Lumpur to stage a jailbreak. A new difficulty arises when Ka-Kui sees his girlfriend May, a tour guide, in Kuala Lumpur leading a party of Hong Kong tourists. He has told her he's on assignment. Ka-Kui evades May at first, but she sees him at the luxurious hotel where Chaibat's gang are staying, with the beautiful Yang, and confronts him in a jealous rage. This nearly blows Ka- Kui's cover, but Panther is persuaded that May is angry because Ka-Kui tried to proposition her as a prostitute. Later, Ka-Kui gets May alone and explains the situation, and she finally calms down. At one point, May even manages to keep Ka-Kui from inadvertently blowing his own cover. But then, in an elevator, May tells a co-worker about Ka-Kui, and is overheard by one of Panther's men. Chaibat takes May hostage, and forces Ka-Kui and Yang – their cover now blown – to help free Chen. Chaibat's scheme is successful and May is released, as per their agreement. However, the exchange turns sour when Chaibat pushes May from his helicopter, though she survives. Furious, Ka-Kui and Yang pursue Chaibat and his men over the roads, rooftops (where Ka-Kui and Yang defeat Panther and his partner), and skies of Kuala Lumpur. In the climax on top of a speeding train, Chaibat is killed after his helicopter collides with a bridge and lands on him. Yang and Ka-Kui also recapture Chen. Since her husband is dead, she decides to tell Yang and Ka-Kui the password to Chaibat's bank account. The two partners argue whether Hong Kong or China will get the money. 

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Photographer Adam Stanheight awakens in a bathroom with his ankle chained to a pipe. Across the room is oncologist Dr. Lawrence Gordon. Between them is a corpse holding a revolver and a microcassette recorder. Both men find a tape in their pockets, and Adam retrieves the recorder. Adam's tape urges him to escape, while Gordon's tape tells him to kill Adam by six o'clock or his wife Alison and daughter Diana will be killed. Adam finds a bag containing two hacksaws inside the toilet which they try to use to cut through their chains, but Adam's saw breaks. Gordon realizes the saws are meant to be used on their feet and identifies their captor as the Jigsaw Killer—a serial killer who tests his victims' will through murderous contraptions as "games." Gordon knows of the Jigsaw Killer because he was once a suspect. Five months ago, Gordon, while discussing the terminal brain cancer of patient John Kramer, was interrogated by Detectives David Tapp and Steven Sing, who found his penlight at the scene of one of Jigsaw's games. Gordon's alibi cleared him, but he agreed to view the testimony of heroin addict Amanda Young, the only known survivor of one of Jigsaw's traps. After Gordon was released, Tapp and Sing found Jigsaw's warehouse using the videotape from Amanda's game. There, they apprehended Jigsaw and saved a man from a trap, but Jigsaw escaped after Sing triggered a shotgun trap in the hallway that killed him. Alison and Diana are held captive at home as their captor watches Adam and Gordon through a hidden camera. The house is simultaneously watched by Tapp, who became obsessed with the Jigsaw case after Sing's death and his discharge from the police force, and is convinced Gordon is the killer. Meanwhile, Gordon finds a box containing two cigarettes, a lighter, and a one-way cellphone, before recalling his abduction in a parking garage by a pig-masked figure. He stages Adam's death with a cigarette dipped in the corpse's tainted blood, but the plan fails when Adam is electrically shocked through his ankle chain. Adam recalls his own abduction: in his photo development room when the power went out, he found a puppet and was attacked by the same pig-masked figure. When Gordon's wife calls him at gunpoint warning him not to trust Adam, the latter admits that he was paid by Tapp to spy on him and shows the photos he took from the bag containing the hacksaws; revealing his knowledge of Gordon's affair with one of his medical students whom he had visited the night he was abducted and the reason he is being tested. Adam finds a photo he did not take, of Alison and Diana's captor, whom Gordon identifies as Zep Hindle, an orderly at his hospital. Once the clock strikes six, Zep moves to murder Alison and Diana due to Gordon failing to kill Adam in time, but the former frees herself and fights him. The struggle attracts Tapp's attention, and he saves Alison and Diana before chasing Zep to the sewers, where he is shot in the chest after a brief fight. Gordon, only aware of the gunshots and screaming, is shocked and loses reach of the cellphone. In desperation, he saws off his foot and shoots Adam with the corpse's revolver. Zep enters the bathroom to kill Gordon but Adam, having survived the gunshot, bludgeons Zep to death with the toilet tank lid. Gordon crawls out of the bathroom to find help while Adam searches Zep's body for a key and finds another tape, revealing that Zep was another victim following rules to obtain an antidote for a slow-acting poison he was given. As the tape ends, the corpse rouses and is revealed to be John Kramer, the real Jigsaw Killer, who reveals to Adam that the key to his chain was in the bathtub that has gone down the drain when he had first woken up. Horrified, Adam attempts to shoot John with Zep's gun, but John shocks him and exits the bathroom. He turns off the lights and seals the door shut, leaving a helpless Adam to die with a simple "Game Over." 

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The storyline of Megaman Network Transmission takes place during the first decade of the 21st century ("200X"), one month after the original Megaman Battle Network. Following the defeat of the "Life Virus", the ultimate weapon of Dr. Wily and the "WWW (World Three)" organization, Lan Hikari and his network navigator (NetNavi) MegaMan.EXE return to a life of ease. However, no sooner does Lan begin to relax when he hears of a mysterious and destructive computer virus called the "Zero Virus" that infects Navis and causes mayhem via his personal information terminal (PET) e-mail. Lan has other qualms to deal with however, receiving an e-mail detailing fellow NetNavi Roll.EXE being trapped in the internet. MegaMan goes to save her, finding an infected FireMan.EXE as the cause of trouble. Defeating him, the duo talk to FireMan's operator, Mr. Match, and learn of the vaccine being distributed to amend the Zero Virus is actually doing just the opposite, having caused FireMan to go berserk. Confirming this with Lan's father, Dr. Yuichiro Hikari, the two set out to search for the cure of the problem, finding many situations of pragmatic Navis infected and causing mayhem. Stopping all of them and returning them to their respective operators, the two eventually discover more clues leading to the remnants of the WWW. It is revealed that a powerful Navi called StarMan.EXE has been distributing the virus. After defeating StarMan, MegaMan and Lan engage in a climatic battle against the powerful super virus Zero himself. However, at the conclusion of the battle, just as the finishing blow is about to be delivered to Zero, the heroes discover he is not evil. Lan's father then transforms him into a full- fledged Navi. However, their happiness is short-lived as a former member of the WWW simply named "Professor" reveals this was all part of his scheme to revive the dreaded Life Virus. Analyzing clues, MegaMan and Lan engage and defeat the second Life Virus and use Zero's observation powers to eventually bring the Professor to justice. There is dialogue at the end of the game between ShadowMan.EXE and his operator Mr. Dark, leading the plot into the next chronological installment, Mega Man Battle Network 2. 

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Alex Mack is an ordinary teenage girl, living with her parents, George and Barbara, and older sister, Annie, in the town of Paradise Valley, Arizona. While walking home after her first day of junior high school, she is nearly hit by a truck from a chemical plant, and during the incident, she is accidentally drenched with a top secret chemical called GC-161. She soon discovers that it has given her strange powers, such as telekinesis, shooting electricity from her fingers, and the ability to dissolve into a mobile puddle of water. However, her powers prove to be unpredictable (such as when her skin starts glowing brightly when she is nervous). She confides only in Annie and her best friend Ray, choosing to keep her powers a secret from everyone else, including her parents, for fear of what the chemical plant CEO, Danielle Atron, will do to her if she finds out. 

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Strider is set in a dystopian future in the year 2048, where a mysterious dictator known as the "Grandmaster" rules over the world. Hiryu, the youngest ever Super A Ranked member of an organization of high-tech ninja agents known as the "Striders", is alone tasked with the Grandmaster's assassination. Hiryu begins his mission by infiltrating the Grandmaster's capital at the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic, a Federation referred to as Eastern European which became the Imperial Capital of the Russian Empire by the year 2048. The game features multilingual voice clips during cutscenes (presented in English, Japanese, Mandarin, Spanish, Russian and Swahili). 

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The United States and the Soviet Union have both developed technology that can miniaturize matter by shrinking individual atoms, but only for one hour. (The novel stated that the duration of miniaturization is inversely proportional to its degree. A 50% reduction, say, could be maintained for many days, but a reduction to microbial size could last for only an hour.) Scientist Dr. Jan Benes (Jean Del Val), working behind the Iron Curtain, has figured out how to make the process work indefinitely. With the help of American intelligence agents, including agent Charles Grant (Boyd), he escapes to the West, but an attempted assassination leaves him comatose with a blood clot in his brain that no surgery can remove from the outside. To save his life, agent Grant, pilot Captain Bill Owens (Redfield), Dr. Michaels (Pleasence), surgeon Dr. Peter Duval (Kennedy), and his assistant Cora Peterson (Welch) are placed aboard a Navy submarine (originally designed to study the deep-sea spawning habits of fish) at the Combined Miniature Deterrent Forces facilities. The submarine, named Proteus, is then miniaturized to "about the size of a microbe", and injected into Benes. The team has 60 minutes to get to and remove the clot; after this, Proteus and its crew will begin to revert to their normal size, become vulnerable to Benes's immune system, and (in the words of Asimov's novelization) "kill Benes regardless of the success of the surgery." The crew faces many obstacles during the mission. An arteriovenous fistula forces them to detour through the heart, where cardiac arrest must be induced (at the risk of killing Benes) to, at best, reduce turbulence that would be strong enough to destroy Proteus. After an unexplained loss of oxygen, they must replenish their supply in the lungs. They are forced to pass through the inner ear, requiring all outside personnel to make no noise, so as to prevent destructive shocks (a sound is accidentally made from a fallen surgery tool though, and the ship and crew are badly thrown about and Cora is, as a result, almost killed by antibodies). To top it all, they discover after their detour through the heart the surgical laser that is needed to destroy the clot was damaged from the turbulence, and as this was due to it not being strapped down as it was before, the crew confirms a saboteur is on the mission. They must cannibalize their wireless telegraph to repair the laser, making communication and guidance from outside impossible to get from then on. By the time they finally reach the clot, they have only six minutes remaining to operate and then exit the body. Before the mission, Grant had been briefed that Duval was the prime suspect as a potential surgical assassin, but as the mission progresses, he pieces the evidence together, and near the end, instead begins to suspect Michaels. During the critical phase of the operation, Dr. Michaels knocks out Owens and takes control of Proteus, while the rest of the crew is outside for the operation. Duval successfully removes the clot with the laser, but Michaels tries to crash the submarine into the clot area to kill Benes. Grant fires the laser at the ship, causing it to veer away and crash. Grant saves Owens from the Proteus, but Michaels is trapped in the wreckage and killed when a white blood cell attacks and destroys the ship. The remaining crew swim desperately to one of Benes' eyes, and escape through a tear duct seconds before returning to normal size. The original screenplay included a follow-up scene in which, because of brain damage caused by the submarine, Benes no longer remembers the formula for unlimited miniaturization. Surviving stills suggest that this scene was filmed but never used. 

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